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I write for the still, small possibility of justice.

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
Stills
Still
Writing
Possibility
Justice
Small
Write

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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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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.
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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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The only recognizable feature of hope is action.
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I saw my ex-husband in the street. I was sitting on the steps of the new library. Hello, my life, I said. We had once been married for twenty-seven years, so I felt justified. He said, What? What life? No life of mine.
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Today's wars are about oil. But alternate energies exist now - solar, wind - for every important energy-using activity in our lives. The only human work that cannot be done without oil is war.
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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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Rosiness is not a worse windowpane than gloomy gray when viewing the world.
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Good talkers are people who use interesting language and have a lot of energy in speech and who also listen.
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I should have written more. I should have written more during the period when I just liked so much doing the political work in the streets.
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That heartbreaking moment when you finish an amazing book, and you are forced to return to reality.
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I do lots of reading and speaking at many universities about literature and also about politics, which is as much a part of my life as the literature.
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If you want to do things, do things.
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A joke is necessary at this time.
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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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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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Art's too long and life's too short.
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You know the mind is an astonishing, long-living, erotic thing.
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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.
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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.
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