“Guts,” never much of a word outside the hunting season, was a favorite noun in literary prose. People were said to have or to lack them, to perceive beauty and make moral distinctions in no other place. “Gut-busting” and “gut-wrenching”… — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
Intelligent people, caught at anything, denied it. Faced with evidence of having denied it falsely, people said they had not done it and had not lied about it, and didn't remember it, but if they had done it, or lied… — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
A favorite strategy was the paragraph-terminating: Right? Followed immediately by Wrong. This linear invitation to a mugging was considered a strategy of wit. — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
There are so many different types of writers. It's just sheer coincidence that they're all called writers. — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
“I think that when you are truly stuck, when you have stood still in the same spot for too long, you throw a grenade… — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
“The dishes that were meant to be hot were never quite as warm as those that were meant to be chilled.” — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
There are times when every act, no matter how private and unconscious, becomes political — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
My grandmother refused to concede that any member of the family died of natural causes. An uncle's cancer in middle age occurred because all… — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
“he writer has a grudge against society, which he documents with accounts of unsatisfying sex, unrealized ambition, unmitigated lo neliness, and a sense of… — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
Things have changed very much, several times, since I grew up, and, like everyone in New York except the intellectuals, I have led several… — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
“Every love story,every commercial trade, every secret, every matter in which trust is involved, is a gentle transaction of hostages. Everything is, to a… — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
My capacity for having a good time exists. It surfaces, however, on odd occasions. — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
“I've had our paper's gossip column since last month. It is egalitarian. I look for people who are quite obscure, and report who is… — Renata Adler Copy Share Image
