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Quote by Claire Messud

“I think there's no question that there's a reason why small children make great art and why slightly bigger children don't. And it's because small children don't worry about what anybody else thinks and slightly bigger children start to worry about these things.”

Author

Claire Messud

Claire Messud is an American novelist known for her profound psychological portrayals and complex character development. Her works often explore the lives, emotions, and identities of modern women. more

“There's a reason why trainspotters are not girls, there's a reason why there's the myth of the slightly autistic male genius, there's a reason why Gertrude Stein believed that her self-presentation was male. One could argue that was Susan Sontag also. The things that we associate with femaleness are not the single-minded, exclusive pursuit of a vocation, whether it be art or anything else. It is not a model that is widespread in our culture, it's not something we think of for women.”

Thinking Art Reason Culture Girl Genius Myth Arguing Vocation Autistic

Author:Claire Messud

“I think that one of the great things about spending - as in my case - twenty-something years with somebody is that at some point you do love the actual person. They're there little by little, the outline is really pretty clear.”

Thinking Great Things Really Pretty

Author:Claire Messud

“We live in a funny time, a funny era, when desire, to be adult desire, has to be conceived as sexual. And that didn't used to be the case. Sexuality is a social construction as much as anything else and I think the realities of sexuality don't always fit into the social constructions that we have, and we live in a goal-oriented time - on all fronts.”

Thinking Reality Desire Fit Sexuality Construction

Author:Claire Messud

“It's the deepest relationship between Giancarlo Giammetti and Valentino Garavani I've ever seen, and no one's ever really scratched the surface with them. They weren't really openly gay. They're in Rome, the city of the Vatican. They didn't discuss this relationship, which I think is one of the great relationships. It's beyond a marriage; it defies words. But maybe it doesn't defy pictures.”

Thinking Gay Great Relationship

Author:Matt Tyrnauer