When you're writing a story, you're creating something of an artificial ending. — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
There isn't going to be anyone to tell you what to do most of the time. It has to be your own… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
Writing is.... being able to take something whole and fiercely alive that exists inside you in some unknowable combination of thought, feeling,… — 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… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
Whenever young writers ask me for advice, I always say you have to be able to take a lot of rejection because,… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
When you approach the second half of your life, you start to unconsciously consider what you're passing on. As a writer, that's… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
“In my opinion, most of us have not been taught how to be responsible for our thoughts and feelings. I see this… — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
The art of integrating the ego and the impulse for empathy in a dynamic call and response. — Mary Gaitskill Copy Share Image
Somebody once said to me if you want to be understood,don't write fiction. — 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
