You mustn't force sex to do the work of love or love to do the work of sex. — Mary McCarthy Best love Copy Share Image
A novelist is an elephant, but an elephant who must pretend to forget. — Mary McCarthy Elephants Copy Share Image
It is impossible, except for theologians, to conceive of a world-wide scandal or a universe-wide scandal; the proof of this is the… — Mary McCarthy Bombs Copy Share Image
The furniture and trappings in the apartment are all in a state of flux - here today, gone tomorrow. Nothing is anchored… — Mary McCarthy Apartment Copy Share Image
Modern neurosis began with the discoveries of Copernicus. Science made men feel small by showing him that the earth was not the… — Mary McCarthy Center of the universe Copy Share Image
Laughter is the great antidote for self-pity, maybe a specific for the malady, yet probably it does tend to dry one's feelings… — Mary McCarthy Antidote Copy Share Image
Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished. — Mary McCarthy Behinds Copy Share Image
Who are the advertising men kidding, besides the European tourist? Between the tired, sad, gentle faces of the subway riders and the… — Mary McCarthy Ads Copy Share Image
If one means by style the voice, the irreducible and always recognizable and alive thing, then of course style is really everything. — Mary McCarthy Alive Copy Share Image
“If [she] had come to prefer the company of odd ducks, it was possibly because they had no conception of oddity, or… — Mary McCarthy Business Copy Share Image
The things of this world reveal their essential absurdity when they are put in the Venetian context. In the unreal realm of… — Mary McCarthy Absurdity Copy Share Image
“Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’." (on Lillian Hellman)” — Mary McCarthy Authors Copy Share Image
A politician or political thinker who calls himself a political realist is usually boasting that he sees politics, so to speak, in… — Mary McCarthy Behinds Copy Share Image
If someone tells you he is going to make a realistic decision, you immediately understand that he is going to do something… — Mary McCarthy Decision Copy Share Image
The horror of Gandhi's murder lies not in the political motives behind it or in its consequences for Indian policy or for… — Mary McCarthy Behinds Copy Share Image
All dramatic realism is somewhat sadistic; an audience is persuaded to watch something that makes it uncomfortable and from which no relief… — Mary McCarthy Audience Copy Share Image
The rationalist mind has always had its doubts about Venice. The watery city receives a dry inspection, as though it were a… — Mary McCarthy Cities Copy Share Image
For me, in fact, the mark of the historic is the nonchalance with which it picks up an individual and deposits him… — Mary McCarthy Deposits Copy Share Image
Europe is the unfinished negative of which America is the proof. — Mary McCarthy America Copy Share Image
The relation between life and literature - a final antimony - is one of mutual plagiarism. — Mary McCarthy Books Copy Share Image
If you talked or laughed in church, told lies, had impure thoughts or conversations, you were bad; if you obeyed your parents… — Mary McCarthy Character Copy Share Image
I was going to get myself recognized at any price. If I could not win fame by goodness, I was ready to… — Mary McCarthy Badness Copy Share Image
Like Michelangelo and Cellini, Florentines of every station are absorbed in acquiring real estate: a little apartment that can be rented to… — Mary McCarthy Apartment Copy Share Image
The Crucifixion and other historical precedents notwithstanding, many of us still believe that outstanding goodness is a kind of armor, that virtue,… — Mary McCarthy Armor Copy Share Image
... the average Catholic perceives no connection between religion and morality, unless it is a question of someone else's morality. — Mary McCarthy Average Copy Share Image
