“She considered [her] life, which had not been a life but only a sort of greeting, a Hello There.” — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
On the wall of our life together hung a gun waiting to be fired in the final act. — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
The strongest argument for the un-materialistic character of American life is that we tolerate conditions that are, from a materialistic point of… — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
The relation between life and literature - a final antimony - is one of mutual plagiarism. — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
The strongest argument for the unmaterialistic character of American life is . . . that we tolerate conditions that are, from a… — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
We all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our… — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
Life is a system of recurrent pairs, the poison and the antidote being eternally packaged together by some considerate heavenly druggist. — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
The strongest argument for the un-materialistic character of American life is the fact that we tolerate conditions that are, from a materialistic… — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
You can date the evolving life of a mind, like the age of a tree, by the rings of friendship formed by… — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
It really takes a hero to live any kind of spiritual life without religious belief. — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
The labor of keeping house is labor in its most naked state, for labor is toil that never finishes, toil that has… — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
My occupational hazard is that I can't help plagiarizing from real life. — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
From what I have seen, I am driven to the conclusion that religion is only good for good people. — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
Yet friendship, I believe, is essential to intellectuals. It is probably the growth hormone the mind requires as it begins its activity of producing… — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
Any sizeable Portuguese town looks like a superstitious bride's finery - something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
The desire to believe the best of people is a prerequisite for intercourse with strangers; suspicion is reserved for friends. — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
“She considered [her] life, which had not been a life but only a sort of greeting, a Hello There.” — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
America is indeed a revelation, though not quite the one that was planned. Given a clean slate, man, it was hoped, would write the… — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
Making love, we are all more alike than we are when we are talking or acting. — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending… — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
The only form of action open to a child is to break something or strike someone, its mother or another child; it cannot cause… — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
Combativeness was, I suppose, the dominant trait in my grandmother's nature. An aggressive churchgoer, she was quite without Christian feeling; the mercy of the… — Mary McCarthy Copy Share Image
