The memoirist, like the poet and the novelist, must engage the world, because engagement makes experience, experience makes wisdom, and finally it's the wisdom-or rather the movement toward it-that counts. — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
for me, the beauty of feminism is that it is a social and political movement that has redefined the power and obligation of the self: self-possession and self-regulation as a tool for social reform. — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
Research is the live heart of the scientific life ... Greatness of position, respect for past accomplishments, the Nobel Prize itself -- none of… — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
“Suddenly, literature, politics, and analysis came together, and I began to think more inclusively about the emotional imprisonment of mind and spirit to which… — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
When I work I feel more alive than under any other circumstances. There's not an 'I love you' in the world that can match… — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
“And I—the girl growing in their midst, being made in their image—I absorbed them as I would chloroform on a cloth laid against my… — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
Before I knew that I was Jewish or a girl I knew that I was a member of the working class. At a time… — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
When the whole world is writing letters, it's easy to lap into the quiet within, tell the story of an hour, keep alive the… — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
“The live, warm presence of my mother had disappeared. In its place stood this remoteness posing as Mama. Her anxiety was unbearable to me.… — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
What you feel when you're writing is the relief of thinking: if you write the sentence correctly, you're clarifying. If you write the right… — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
No man worth his salt does not wish to be a husband and father; yet no man is raised to be a husband and… — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
Psychoanalysis showed me that I might be neurotic because I was a girl but, as Chekhov might have put it, I alone had to… — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
“I had an affair with a downtown playwright. Two things about this man: He was an ex-alcoholic, and he was phobic about leaving the… — Vivian Gornick Copy Share Image
