You can teach people a lot about craft and various techniques, and you can certainly teach them to appreciate, but you cannot give them spirit or soul if it's not there. — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
I think the closest thing I can come to defining what that vital thing is for me - is that there's a sort of soul-quality in writing, if it's any good. It has a spirit or an energy to it… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
“I carry love wrapped in pain. That is my treasure and soon it will be yours.” — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
“God famously doesn't afflict Job because of anything Job has done, but because he wants to prove a point to Satan. Twenty years later,… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
When you're writing a story, you're creating something of an artificial ending. — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
Partly, I'm worried that no one is saying anything because they are afraid of being seen as politically correct. — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
“...loading your brain with subliminal messages.... How loathsome to turn a sadistic murder into entertainment [in the newspaper] -- and yet how hard not… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
“The place Joanne is building inside [herself] has rooms for all of this. Not just rooms. Beautiful ones. For Karl and Jerry and Karen… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
“Valiantly, he tried to bring his soul to life in the small thing through which it had to live, and it was crushed, again… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
The best definition I've heard is that guilt is about what you've done, shame is about who you are. If something's out of my… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
When my first book came out, it was very disorienting. My health went south. I didn't know how to relate to people. I thought,… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
When he held her that way, she felt so happy that it disturbed her. After he left, it would take her hours to fall… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
“But life can give a lot. If you can’t see inside the heart no matter how you look, then why not look? Why not… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
Sexuality is a place where people are very vulnerable and can be experiencing and embodying very raw forces that they don't really understand and… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
![“...loading your brain with subliminal messages.... How loathsome to turn a sadistic murder into entertainment [in the newspaper] -- and yet how hard not to read about it. What dark comedy to realize that you are scanning for descriptions of torture as you disapprove. Which of course only makes it…” quote by Mary Gaitskill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/1b9/mary-gaitskill-7551_dark-comedy_loading-your-brain-with-subliminal-messa_204085.jpg)
![“The place Joanne is building inside [herself] has rooms for all of this. Not just rooms. Beautiful ones. For Karl and Jerry and Karen and Nate in his cowboy hat and the hot-tub guy and movie directors and old-lady healers and people trying to love their asses and people who think they're stupid…” quote by Mary Gaitskill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/117/mary-gaitskill-7551_cowboy-hat_the-place-joanne-is-building-inside-hers_231488.jpg)
