Quote

Art's too long and life's too short.

Grace Paley

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Grace Paley
Age: 84 †
Born: 1922
Born: December 11
Died: 2007
Died: August 21
Activist
Teacher
Writer
The Bronx
New York City
Short
Art
Long
Life

More quotes by Grace Paley

Image
I don't believe civilization can do a lot more than educate a person's senses.
Grace Paley
Image
In the end, long life is the reward, strength, and beauty.
Grace Paley
Image
I write for the still, small possibility of justice.
Grace Paley
Image
I know I've done good work. I've been very serious about my writing, and I've done the best that I could. But I don't feel that I've done more than I should have. In fact, I've done less than I should have.
Grace Paley
Image
I didn't write any fiction until I was past thirty.
Grace Paley
Image
Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life.
Grace Paley
Image
I have a basic indolence about me which is essential to writing. ... It's thinking time, it's hanging-out time, it's daydreaming time. You know, it's lie-around-the-bed time, it's sitting-like-a-dope-in-your-chair time. And that seems to me essential to any work.
Grace Paley
Image
I'm really sorry for people growing up right now, because they have some cockeyed idea that they can get by with their eyes closed the cane they're tapping is money, and that won't take them in the right direction.
Grace Paley
Image
What we owe men is some freedom from their part in a murderous game in which they kick each other to death with one foot, bracing themselves on our various comfortable places with the other.
Grace Paley
Image
Write what will stop your breath if you don’t write.
Grace Paley
Image
A joke is necessary at this time.
Grace Paley
Image
I really believe one of the jobs of a writer is to stretch as far as you can into other voices.
Grace Paley
Image
In the park I met other women and I started to get interested in their lives. I developed a lot of pressure to talk about women's lives, and children's lives, too. Children interest me tremendously.
Grace Paley
Image
People will sometimes say, Why don't you write more politics? And I have to explain to them that writing the lives of women IS politics.
Grace Paley
Image
Sometimes you find that what is most personal is also what connects you most strongly with others.
Grace Paley
Image
It's a terrible thing to die young. Still, it saves a lot of time.
Grace Paley
Image
The only recognizable feature of hope is action.
Grace Paley
Image
Well, by now you must know yourself, honey, whatever you do, life don't stop. It only sits a minute and dreams a dream.
Grace Paley
Image
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.
Grace Paley
Image
I am very interested in people trying to write because I don't have a big academic background at all.
Grace Paley