Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Vivian Gornick

Quote by Vivian Gornick

“The telephone conversation is, by its very nature, reactive, not reflective. Immediacy is its prime virtue. ... The letter, written in absorbed solitude, is an act of faith: it assumes the presence of humanity: world and self are generated from within: loneliness is courted, not feared. To write a letter is to be alone with my thoughts in the conjured presence of another person. I keep myself imaginative company. I occupy the empty room.”

Quote by Vivian Gornick

Create image

Author

Vivian Gornick
Vivian Gornick

Vivian Gornick, born on June 14, 1935, is an American literary critic and writer known for her profound social insights and delicate portrayal of the female experience. more

You May Also Like

“The idea that money brings power and independence is an illusion. What money usually brings is the need for more money - and there is a shabby and pathetic powerlessness that comes with that need. The inability to risk new lives, new work, new styles of thought and experience, is more often than not tied to the bourgeois fear of reducing one's material standard of living. That is, indeed, to be owned by possessions, to be governed by a sense of property rather than by a sense of self.”

NeedsIdeasSelfMoneyRiskStyleMaterialsStandardsIllusionIndependencePropertyPossessionTiedMore MoneyNew LifeInabilityPatheticReducingBourgeoisSense Of SelfStandards Of LivingPowerlessnessShabbyNew Work
Author:Vivian Gornick
Create image

“To do science today is to experience a dimension unique in contemporary working lives; the work promises something incomparable: the sense of living both personally and historically. That is why science now draws to itself all kinds of people - charlatans, mediocrities, geniuses - everyone who wants to touch the flame, feel alive to the time.”

PeopleWantFeelsKindTodayScienceAliveGeniusPromiseUniqueDrawsContemporaryAll KindsFlamesDimensionsMediocrityIncomparableCharlatansWorking Life
Book:Women in Science: Then and Now
Create image