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You know the mind is an astonishing, long-living, erotic thing.

Grace Paley

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Grace Paley
Age: 84 †
Born: 1922
Born: December 11
Died: 2007
Died: August 21
Activist
Teacher
Writer
The Bronx
New York City
Living
Thing
Long
Mind
Erotic
Astonishing

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I did write a number of reports on my political experiences, but there were many omissions, and I feel bad about that because it was work that was interesting and had I written more about it, it could have been useful.
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I write for the still, small possibility of justice.
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To be modest means that you have something to be modest about.
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It wasn't until I lived in the countryside that I began to understand the life of the countryside and the people in it and trees and water. Just learning about water is an education for a city person.
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Just when I most needed important conversation, a sniff of the man-wide world, that is, at least one brainy companion who could translate my friendly language into his tongue of undying carnal love, I was forced to lounge in our neighborhood park, surrounded by children.
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My vocabulary is adequate for writing notes and keeping journals but absolutely useless for an active moral life.
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Sometimes you find that what is most personal is also what connects you most strongly with others.
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Art's too long and life's too short.
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Well, by now you must know yourself, honey, whatever you do, life don't stop. It only sits a minute and dreams a dream.
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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.
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The word career is a divisive word. It's a word that divides the normal life from business or professional life.
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I am very interested in people trying to write because I don't have a big academic background at all.
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Write what will stop your breath if you don’t write.
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I don't believe civilization can do a lot more than educate a person's senses.
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We write about what we don't know about what we know.
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You become a writer because you need to become a writer - nothing else.
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I liked the education. I liked people learning things all around me and I liked going to people's classes.
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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.
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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.
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I really believe one of the jobs of a writer is to stretch as far as you can into other voices.
Grace Paley