Quote

Only idiots or snobs ever really thought less of 'genre books' of course. There are stupid books and there are smart books. There are well-written books and badly written books. There are fun books and boring books. All of these distinctions are vastly more important than the distinction between the literary and the non-literary.

Stephen Marche

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Stephen Marche
Age: 48
Born: 1976
Born: January 1
Novelist
Writer
Edmonton
Alberta
Courses
Literary
Book
Course
Distinction
Well
Books
Idiot
Snobs
Important
Genre
Snob
Really
Written
Boring
Distinctions
Less
Smart
Vastly
Thought
Stupid
Idiots
Ever
Fun
Badly
Wells

More quotes by Stephen Marche

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We have never been more detached from one another, or lonelier. In a world consumed by ever more novel modes of socializing, we have less and less actual society. We live in an accelerating contradiction: The more connected we become, the lonelier we are.
Stephen Marche
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I don't really mind it when Trudeau calls himself a feminist because, you know, he did the half-female cabinet that's something to be proud of. On the other hand, when you look at that recent Russian spousal abuse law or attacks on abortion in the U.S, you have to say that's a human rights issue, and feminism is just human rights.
Stephen Marche
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Men talk about masculinity through sports and clothes. They don't talk about gender, they talk about LeBron James and whether it's okay to wear lipstick and eyeliner. They're not getting to the question at hand, which is, What does it mean to be a man when the traditional values of masculinity are eroding incredibly rapidly?'
Stephen Marche
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Marriage is an an inherently contradictory state. It involves the fusion of two people into one thing. And it's also love, and it's a lot of work, and it's got glory in its drudgery.
Stephen Marche
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The economy is changing everything. And men need to deal with that. Our response to it has been rage, stupidity and conscious avoidance of dealing with what the reality of being a man might be outside of empty concepts from ancient history.
Stephen Marche
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Marriage is not one point of view: it's a constant back and forth over different perspectives - a healthy marriage, anyway.
Stephen Marche
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Marriage is this black box which is the key to all social and political problems the family is the unit.
Stephen Marche
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Whenever I read a book about a marriage, I always feel I'm being lied to.
Stephen Marche
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When you look at the biggest study of the American dream, the number-one correlate for upward mobility is having two parents in a home. It doesn't matter if they're male or female.
Stephen Marche
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The division [between how much housework men and women do] is declining across all advanced economies - not for the reasons that people want, which is men are doing more, but because women are doing less of it, but even then, the trend is getting towards equality.
Stephen Marche
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Actually the family is still the core social unit. Culturally, traditional masculinity was a removed father. That was a false conception of masculinity and the proper relationship between a man and his children.
Stephen Marche
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Almost all the voices in history have been men, but on this one question of gender, men don't talk about it. This has nothing to do with women it has to do with men.
Stephen Marche
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To me, there's two definitions of feminism. One is that you believe that women are equal human beings that's not really a philosophy, it's just obvious. And the other is that you're actually fighting for women: you're promoting women and working towards the betterment of women.
Stephen Marche
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You cannot have an advanced economy while holding women back from the workplace.
Stephen Marche
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As you get closer to equality, you get more pornography. True patriarchal societies like Saudi Arabia do not allow pornography because women are not allowed to turn their bodies into a commodity women are chattel.
Stephen Marche
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I'd never call myself a feminist, and that the world doesn't need male feminists.
Stephen Marche
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Men who define themselves as breadwinners are going to have to leave the traditional iconography of masculinity behind if they want to be breadwinners.
Stephen Marche
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Women become breadwinners, men become caregivers. That's the birth of intimate marriage.
Stephen Marche
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Toronto may be the only city where novels are integral to high art, the alternative scene and mainstream culture all at the same time.
Stephen Marche
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When you ask single men in their 20s, Do you want children? they want children more than women do. Again, economics drive this. If you're a 29-year-old woman, having a baby is going to seriously blow up your career. If you're a 29-year-old man, it isn't.
Stephen Marche