Grace Paley

“Who cares?' said Judy, who didn't care.”

— Grace Paley

The only recognizable feature of hope is action.

— Grace Paley

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

— Grace Paley

Waves, once they land on the beach, are not reversible.

— Grace Paley

I write for the still, small possibility of justice.

— Grace Paley

Art's too long and life's too short.

— Grace Paley

Art is too long, and life is too short,

— Grace Paley

To be modest means that you have something to be modest about.

— Grace Paley

I read a lot. I liked a tremendous number of poets and writers. The person whose work I liked the most was…

— Grace Paley

What I generally tell a class is that if you're not interested in anybody else's work but your own, take another class.

— Grace Paley

Rosiness is not a worse windowpane than gloomy gray when viewing the world.

— Grace Paley

That heartbreaking moment when you finish an amazing book, and you are forced to return to reality.

— Grace Paley

Writing poetry, which for me was then saying how I felt about this and that, didn't help me to understand the world…

— Grace Paley

Sometimes before people know what they're saying, they already love the language.

— Grace Paley

Well, by now you must know yourself, honey, whatever you do, life don't stop. It only sits a minute and dreams a…

— Grace Paley

The women's movement was coming, but I didn't know it in 1956-1957, when I began to write.

— Grace Paley

I did write a number of reports on my political experiences, but there were many omissions, and I feel bad about that…

— Grace Paley

But what's a writer for? The whole point is to put yourself into other lives, other heads-writers have always done that. If…

— Grace Paley

Today's wars are about oil. But alternate energies exist now - solar, wind - for every important energy-using activity in our lives.…

— Grace Paley

I should have written more. I should have written more during the period when I just liked so much doing the political…

— Grace Paley

I do lots of reading and speaking at many universities about literature and also about politics, which is as much a part…

— Grace Paley

My job is to get people to write something truthful, something about truth and beauty - wherever they are - and to…

— Grace Paley

I'm seventy-five now. I also have the peculiar luck of having a sister and brother who are fourteen and sixteen years older…

— Grace Paley

I'm really sorry for people growing up right now, because they have some cockeyed idea that they can get by with their…

— Grace Paley

“I checked out the two Edith Wharton books I had just returned because I'd read them so long ago and they are…

— Grace Paley

“The abortion isn’t what they(conservative pro-life men of 1940s) are thinking about; they’re really thinking about sex. They’re really thinking about love…

— Grace Paley

'The Immigrant Story,' which took me about twenty-five years to write, was a very simple story, but I couldn't think of how…

— Grace Paley

I loved the comradeship of the sixties and the seventies, and I still maintain friendships with the people I worked with then…

— Grace Paley

“He had had a habit throughout the twenty-seven years of making a narrow remark which, like a plumber’s snake, could work its…

— Grace Paley

“Since I was a big reader, I might be able to accomplish something. I had no gift. That didn’t mean I must…

— Grace Paley

My language limitations here are real. My vocabulary is adequate for writing notes and keeping journals but absolutely useless for an active…

— Grace Paley

“At this very moment, the thumb of Ricardo's hovering shadow jabbed her in her left eye, revealing for all the world the…

— Grace Paley

“I wanted a sailboat, he said. But you didn’t want anything. Don’t be bitter, I said. It’s never too late. No, he…

— Grace Paley

“By love, she probably meant she would die without being in love. By in love, she meant the acuteness of the heart…

— Grace Paley

“I unknot his tie and offer him a cold sandwich. He raps my backside, paying attention to the bounce. I walk around…

— Grace Paley

Here I am in the garden laughing an old woman with heavy breasts and a nicely mapped face how did this happen…

— Grace Paley

The only thing you should have to do is find work you love to do. And I can't imagine living without having…

— Grace Paley

To translate a poem from thinking into English takes all night.

— Grace Paley

Poets take themselves very seriously.

— Grace Paley

The wrong word is like a lie jammed inside the story.

— Grace Paley