Mary Gaitskill

“I carry love wrapped in pain. That is my treasure and soon it will be yours.”

— Mary Gaitskill

“God famously doesn't afflict Job because of anything Job has done, but because he wants to prove a point to Satan. Twenty…

— Mary Gaitskill

When you're writing a story, you're creating something of an artificial ending.

— Mary Gaitskill

Partly, I'm worried that no one is saying anything because they are afraid of being seen as politically correct.

— Mary Gaitskill

“...loading your brain with subliminal messages.... How loathsome to turn a sadistic murder into entertainment [in the newspaper] -- and yet how…

— Mary Gaitskill

“The place Joanne is building inside [herself] has rooms for all of this. Not just rooms. Beautiful ones. For Karl and Jerry…

— Mary Gaitskill

“Valiantly, he tried to bring his soul to life in the small thing through which it had to live, and it was…

— Mary Gaitskill

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…

— Mary Gaitskill

When my first book came out, it was very disorienting. My health went south. I didn't know how to relate to people.…

— Mary Gaitskill

When he held her that way, she felt so happy that it disturbed her. After he left, it would take her hours…

— Mary Gaitskill

“But life can give a lot. If you can’t see inside the heart no matter how you look, then why not look?…

— Mary Gaitskill

Sexuality is a place where people are very vulnerable and can be experiencing and embodying very raw forces that they don't really…

— Mary Gaitskill

I focus more on the spiritual or psychic gains.

— Mary Gaitskill

“When boys get angry with each other, they just fight it out and it's all over. But girls are dirty. They pretend…

— Mary Gaitskill

I think, life is miserable.

— Mary Gaitskill

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

“The most rigid pattern was not the one imposed by the school system or the adolescent social system. It was the pattern…

— Mary Gaitskill

When I was a kid, I did want to be a boy. I didn't like to play with dolls, and most of…

— Mary Gaitskill

I think a woman who commits adultery, is not sympathetic in our culture - or in many cultures, let's face it.

— Mary Gaitskill

“She was starved hurting limbs.”

— Mary Gaitskill

What are you thinking?” She asks. -That you are beautiful. That not everyone could see it. I almost became the kind of…

— Mary Gaitskill

If I'm meeting somebody for the first time, I don't look them up on Wikipedia, or I try not to, because I…

— Mary Gaitskill

“SHE WAS MEETING a man she had recently and abruptly fallen in love with. She was in a state of ghastly anxiety.…

— Mary Gaitskill

“He longed for a dim-eyed little slut with a big, bright mouth and black vinyl underwear.”

— Mary Gaitskill

People still think that a woman who doesn't have children or doesn't want children is really lacking in something. I've seen this…

— Mary Gaitskill