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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

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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
Writing
People
Explain
Politics
Lives
Write
Women
Sometimes

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I was a fantastic student until ten, and then my mind began to wander.
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Sometimes before people know what they're saying, they already love the language.
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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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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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Art's too long and life's too short.
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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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You become a writer because you need to become a writer - nothing else.
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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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The only recognizable feature of hope is action.
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When you have a peace movement that has an actual war, it's different from one that has wars that our country is not totally involved in. During the war in Vietnam, and to a lesser degree the wars in Central America where our country was directly involved, it was easier to organize.
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Every time you finish something ... you figure you've finally learned to write, right? Then you start something else and it turns out you haven't. You have learned how to write that story, or that book, but you haven't learned how to write the next one.
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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.
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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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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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It's a terrible thing to die young. Still, it saves a lot of time.
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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 am very interested in people trying to write because I don't have a big academic background at all.
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I didn't write any fiction until I was past thirty.
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The women's movement was coming, but I didn't know it in 1956-1957, when I began to write.
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A joke is necessary at this time.
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