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Quote by Grace Paley

“I didn't intend to become a short-story writer. I became one because I finished a couple of short stories and realized that's what I wanted to do and could do with children and with all the other things in my life.”

Quote by Grace Paley

Author

Grace Paley was an American writer born on December 11, 1922, and passed away on August 22, 2007. Known for her concise language and profound emotional depth, her works primarily focus on family, love, and social issues. more

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“I didn't intend. The word "intend" is the wrong word for what I do. It's just that it's something you do, and you can't not do. If you want to do it, and you don't intend to, you do it anyway. The word "intend" is wrong. The word "pressure" is right. It's like any art form.”

Ifs Want Art Form Pressure Wrong Words

Author:Grace Paley

“I read a lot. I liked a tremendous number of poets and writers. The person whose work I liked the most was Joyce.”

Persons Numbers Poet Joyce

Author:Grace Paley

“When you think of things that influenced your life, Mother Goose influenced more people than almost any other thing, the rhythms of those poems. Everything after that was a bare imitation of some of those mysterious and materialistic poems.”

People Thinking Mother Mysterious Rhythm Imitation Materialistic Geese Mother Goose

Author:Grace Paley

“My family were Russian Jews. They got you to read as soon as you could. And then assumed you would read a lot. People didn't really tell stories but they were good talkers. That's important for a writer, to hear speakers.”

People Important Stories My Family Jew Speakers Talkers

Author:Grace Paley

“To live life well is to express life poorly; if one expresses life too well, one is living it no longer.”

Ifs Life Wells Live Life Living Life Well

Author:Gaston Bachelard

“Good talkers are people who use interesting language and have a lot of energy in speech and who also listen.”

People Use Energy Language Interesting Speech Talkers

Author:Grace Paley

“My mother went to demonstrations. I remember her going to a big demonstration for Earl Brower and she came home crying and said the Communists were very mean and booed their people. I remember feeling sad at her feeling sad.”

People Mean Said Feelings Home Bigs Remember Mother Cry Communist Demonstration Very Mean Feeling Sad

Author:Grace Paley

“I lived in a house in the East Bronx, a totally Jewish neighborhood on East 172nd Street. You didn't see Christians much, although one lived next door. We thought they were kind of a minority.”

Kind Christian Next House Doors Streets East Minorities Neighborhood Bronx

Author:Grace Paley

“The women's movement was coming, but I didn't know it in 1956-1957, when I began to write.”

Knows Writing Movement

Author:Grace Paley

“I was fortunate that by the time I was born, there were a lot of comforts and at the same time I lived in a neighborhood where it was brought to my eyes every single day that people didn't live like me. Every day I knew that many of my friends "got relief." That was important in my thinking about the world, thinking that not everybody lived that way.”

People Thinking World Way Important Eye Born Comfort My Friends Like Me Fortunate Relief Neighborhood

Author:Grace Paley