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Mary MacLane

Mary MacLane Quotes

Writer

Mary MacLane (May 1, 1881 - August 6, 1929) was an American writer known for her autobiographical work, 'Mary MacLane: Autobiography of a Female Impersonator'. Her work, praised for its honesty and bluntness, had a significant impact on American literature in the early 20th century.

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All Genius Female Adolescent Angst World May Book Want Knows Writing Adolescent Exceptionalism Creatures

Famous Mary MacLane Quotes

“I consider calmly the question of how much evil I should need to kill off my finer feelings.”

Needs Should Feelings Evil

Book:Human Days: A Mary MacLane Reader

Source: Human Days: A Mary MacLane Reader

“I was born to be alone, and I always shall be but now I want to be.”

Book:Tender Darkness: A Mary MacLane Sampler

Source: Tender Darkness: A Mary MacLane Sampler

“When I wrote my book I wanted to love someone. I wanted to be in love. Now I know that I shall never be in love - and I no longer wish to be.”

Knows Book Wanted Wish Love Someone Liking Someone

Book:I Await the Devil's Coming: Annotated & Unexpurgated

Source: I Await the Devil's Coming: Annotated & Unexpurgated

“I am a genius. Then it amused me to keep saying so, but now it does not. I expected to be happy sometime. Now I know I shall never be.”

Knows Doe Genius Expected Amused

Book:I Await the Devil's Coming: Annotated & Unexpurgated

Source: I Await the Devil's Coming: Annotated & Unexpurgated

“I began to be a woman at twelve, or more properly, a genius.”

Book:I Await the Devil's Coming: The Story of Mary MacLane

Source: I Await the Devil's Coming: The Story of Mary MacLane

“Just why I sent it to the publishers would be hard to say, but when I had finished it I felt that it was literature, because it is real and because it was well written. And I know that the world wants such things.”

Knows World Want Writing Wells Real Hard Would Be Literature Felt Written Finished Publishers Well Written

Author:Mary MacLane

“I am not good. I am not virtuous. I am not sympathetic. I am not generous. I am merely and above all a creature of intense passionate feeling. I feel—everything. It is my genius. It burns me like fire.”

Feels Feelings Fire Genius Creatures Passionate Intense Generous Virtuous Sympathetic

Book:Tender Darkness: A Mary MacLane Sampler

Source: Tender Darkness: A Mary MacLane Sampler

“Some people say that beauty is a curse. It may be true, but I'm sure I should not have at all minded being cursed a little.”

People Should May Littles Being True Curse Cursed

Book:I Await the Devil's Coming: The Story of Mary MacLane

Source: I Await the Devil's Coming: The Story of Mary MacLane

“I can think of nothing in the world like the utter littleness, the paltriness, the contemptibleness, the degradation, of the woman who is tied down under a roof with a man who is really nothing to her; who wears the man’s name, who bears the man’s children — who plays the virtuous woman. . . . May I never, I say, become that abnormal merciless animal, that deformed monstrosity — a virtuous woman.”

Thinking Men World May Children I Can Play Names Animal He Man Bears Tied Virtuous Roof Degradation Abnormal Monstrosity Virtuous Woman

Author:Mary MacLane

“Fame is indeed beautiful and benign and gentle and satisfying, but happiness is something at once tender and brilliant beyond all things.”

Beautiful Fame All Things Brilliant Gentle Satisfying Tenderness Brilliant Ideas Benign

Author:Mary MacLane

“When I was three years old I was taken with my family to a little town in Western Minnesota, where I lived a more or less vapid and ordinary life until I was ten.”

Years Littles Three Taken Ten Ordinary My Family Towns Western Three Years Ordinary Life Minnesota Three Year Olds Little Towns Vapid

Author:Mary MacLane

“Genius of a kind has always been with me; an empty heart that has taken on a certain wooden quality; an excellent, strong woman's body and a pitiably starved soul.”

Heart Kind Soul Body Certain Strong Quality Taken Genius Empty Excellent Strong Women Women's Bodies Empty Heart

Author:Mary MacLane

“It is with pain that I read of the dire effects of my book upon the minds of young girls.”

Mind Book Pain Young Girl Effects

Author:Mary MacLane

“I never give my real self. I have a hundred sides, and I turn first one way and then the other. I am playing a deep game. I have a number of strong cards up my sleeve. I have never been myself, excepting to two friends.”

Way Giving Firsts Two Real Self Turns Games Strong Sides Numbers Hundred Cards One Way Sleeves Real Self Two Friends

Book:Tender Darkness: A Mary MacLane Sampler

Source: Tender Darkness: A Mary MacLane Sampler

“I want to live quietly.”

Author:Mary MacLane

“You may think me crude, and probably I am crude, but I am not so crude as I was, for I am clever enough to see that the girl of nineteen who thought herself a genius was only an unusual girl writing her heart out.”

Thinking Writing Heart May Enough Girl Genius Clever Unusual Crude Nineteen

Author:Mary MacLane

About the Author

Born: May 1, 1881
Died: August 6, 1929
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 66

Related Topics

Genius Female Adolescent Angst World May Book Want Knows Writing Adolescent Exceptionalism Creatures

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

I Await the Devil's ComingRelated source material

Human Days: A Mary MacLane ReaderRelated source material

I Await the Devil's Coming: Annotated & UnexpurgatedRelated source material

Tender Darkness: A Mary MacLane SamplerRelated source material

I Await the Devil's Coming: The Story of Mary MacLaneRelated source material

I, Mary MacLane: A Diary of Human DaysRelated source material

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