“I don't want to sleep,' my mother said. 'I want -- for God's sake, I want to wake up.” — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“MY MOTHER assures me that it happens to everyone, sooner or later, for reasons more or less identifiable; everyone loses a best… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I liked the idea of being from 'somewhere else.' I do think that's inherited. My father never had a fixed sense of… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
When you are the woman upstairs, nobody thinks of you first. Nobody calls you before anyone else, or sends you the first… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
When you move around a lot, there are little bits of you from everywhere. I mean, my father's French, and I speak… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
My mother turned 40 in 1973. So in 1970 - when 'The Female Eunuch' came out and Ms. magazine was founded -… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“My mother was annoyed with me throughout their visit—ostensibly because I wasn’t being a good enough hostess to the cousins, but really… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“My everyday Appleton life, my phones calls to my father, my occasional beers with friends, my Saturday-morning jobs around the reservoir -… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“But I did wonder what she did, on those afternoons—not just Fridays either, because on the days I had speech team, somebody… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“When you’re the Woman Upstairs, nobody thinks of you first. Nobody calls you before anyone else, or sends you the first postcard.… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I have said it somewhere - our literary lived lives are as important as our literally lived lives. — Claire Messud Copy Share
“Life is about deciding what matters. It’s about the fantasy that determines the reality. Have you ever asked yourself whether you’d rather fly or… — Claire Messud Copy Share
Life's funny. You have to find a way to keep going, to keep laughing, even after you realize that none of your dreams will… — Claire Messud Copy Share
It's the strangest thing about being human: to know so much, to communicate so much, and yet always to fall so drastically short of… — Claire Messud Copy Share
The fictional narratives that television, film, and the news provide for girls and young women are appalling. — Claire Messud Copy Share
“I don't want to sleep,' my mother said. 'I want -- for God's sake, I want to wake up.” — Claire Messud Copy Share
“It was supposed to say “Great Artist” on my tombstone, but if I died right now it would say “such a good teacher/daughter/friend” instead;… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“Live, my dear Nora. Satisfy your hunger. There's food all around you, you know.' 'What kind of food, I'd like to know?' 'Ah'-he smiled-… — Claire Messud Copy Share
I digress a lot - it's how I experience the world. I would like to write in a way that will convey that to… — Claire Messud Copy Share
We think that - as kids, you know - that kids make up stories and live in a sort of fictional place, but that,… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“It makes sense that if you stand almost daily in the middle of a perfect crescent of shore, with a vista open to eternity,… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“Once aware of my isolation, I was afraid not of it but of its interruption.” — Claire Messud Copy Share
“who I am in my head, very few people really get to see that. Almost none. It’s the most precious gift I can give,… — Claire Messud Copy Share
“My everyday Appleton life, my phones calls to my father, my occasional beers with friends, my Saturday-morning jobs around the reservoir - what was… — Claire Messud Copy Share
