Memoir is not an act of history, but an act of memory, which is innately corrupt. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
There are all kinds of things God wants me to do that I'm very obstreperous about. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
Having a great dad probably permitted me to pal around with guys in a way that some women don't. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
There are women succeeding beyond their wildest dreams because of their sobriety. — Mary Karr Dream Copy Share Image
Be willing to be a child and be the Lilliputian in the world of Gulliver. — Mary Karr Children Copy Share Image
The failures of other genres to provide an emotional connection with some of their characters and narratives gives memoir a toehold. — Mary Karr Character Copy Share Image
It's completely through prayer that I came to believe in God. I just sensed a presence south of my neck. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“Standing in the shower, I feel something on the back of my leg that turns out to be my ass.” — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“Which ensures that life gets lived in miniature. In lieu of the large feelings—sorrow, fury, joy—I had their junior counterparts—anxiety, irritation, excitement.… — Mary Karr Anger Copy Share Image
“I believe that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“We are in the grip of some big machine grinding us along. The force of it simplifies everything. A weird calm settled… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“No matter how self-aware you are, memoir wrenches at your insides precisely because it makes you battle with your very self –… — Mary Karr Memoir Copy Share Image
The truth is when I went to graduate school I would've said I was among the least talented of the students, I… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
But I'm not ready to stop listening to the screwed-up inner voice that's been ordering me around for a lifetime. My head… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“I couldn't have been more than six, but I was calling her an ignorant little bitch. Her momma stood on the porch… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
Most great writers suffer and have no idea how good they are. Most bad writers are very confident. Be willing to be… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
I get so lonely sometimes, I could put a box on my head and mail myself to a stranger. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
I was 40 years old before I became an overnight success, and I'd been publishing for 20 years. — Mary Karr Overnight success Copy Share Image
I always say that a poet loves the world, and the prose writer needs to create an alternative world. — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
The thing I have to do as a writer, and that God permits me to do, is that I have to be… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“Born on third base, my daddy always said of the well off, and they think they hit a home run.” — Mary Karr Baseball Copy Share Image
“(“No man but a blockhead ever wrote for any cause but money,” Samuel Johnson said.)” — Mary Karr Blockhead Copy Share Image
When you do try to picture the boys who do ask you out, they're absolutely featureless, like old carvings eroded by centuries… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“it was dawning on me how uphill a poet's path was, and I confessed to her that if I had to be… — Mary Karr Choose to be happy Copy Share Image
I always thought my family was so bizarre, so when people started coming up to me and saying, 'My family was exactly… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“I loved the idea that looking at a painting or listening to a concerto could make you somehow "transcend" the day-in, day-out… — Mary Karr Artist Copy Share Image
I was a philosophy major as an undergraduate, and I'm just an arrogant little thing. It's hard for me to admit that… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“Finally, put it aside. Put it out of your head at least a week. You want it to set up like jello.… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
I'm bred for farm work, and for such folk, the only A's you get come from effort. Strife and strain are all… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
Such a small, pure object a poem could be, made of nothing but air a tiny string of letters, maybe small enough… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
People who didn't live pre-Internet can't grasp how devoid of ideas life in my hometown was. The only bookstores sold Bibles the… — Mary Karr Bible Copy Share Image
“I think about the story of Job I heard in Carol Sharp's Sunday school. How he sort of learned to lean into… — Mary Karr Feeling hurt Copy Share Image
There's a space at the bottom of an exhale, a little hitch between taking in and letting out that's a perfect zero… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“Maybe it fostered in me a creeping ambition-deficit disorder, but it could ease an ache. So anything worth doing could be undertaken… — Mary Karr Ambition Copy Share Image
“Your mother rolls her eyes at the cat lapping grapefruit juice, says, "Everything that comes into this house is crazy - whether… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“Faith is not a feeling, she says. It's a set of actions. By taking the actions, you demonstrate more faith than somebody… — Mary Karr Faith Copy Share Image
Every now and then we enter the presence of the numinous and deduce for an instant how we're formed, in what detail… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
“I lock all my scaredness down in my stomach until the fear hardens into something I hardly notice. I myself harden into… — Mary Karr Coping-mechanism Copy Share Image
Faith is a choice like any other. If you're picking a career or a husband - or deciding whether to have a… — Mary Karr Baby Copy Share Image
My idea of art is, you write something that makes people feel so strongly that they get some conviction about who they… — Mary Karr Copy Share Image
![“I believe that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of [man’s] puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. William Faulkner” quote by Mary Karr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/mary-karr-3335_faulkner_i-believe-that-when-the-last-ding-dong-o_1832282.jpg)
