Grace Paley Quotes

Powerful Grace Paley for Daily Growth

About Grace Paley

Grace Paley (1922-2007) was an American short story writer, poet, and political activist whose work explored the complexities of family, community, and social justice. Born in The Bronx, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents, she grew up in a tenement building where her father worked as a tailor and her mother ran a candy store. This working-class background heavily influenced her writing, providing rich material for her stories about ordinary people grappling with everyday life. Paley attended Hunter College but left without graduating to marry Robert Nelson Paley in 1942. The couple had three children and lived together for over four decades before divorcing in 1985. During this time, she was active in the pacifist movement and raised her family in Greenwich Village and later, Old Saybrook, Connecticut. In the late 1960s, Paley became involved with the Women's Liberation Movement, which inspired many of her short stories about strong female characters navigating gender roles and expectations. Her first collection, "The Little Disturbances of Man" (1959), garnered critical acclaim for its unique blend of humor, realism, and political awareness. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, Paley continued to publish short story collections such as "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute" (1974) and "Love & Sleep" (1982), which further cemented her reputation as one of America's most important contemporary writers. In 1982, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making her the first woman to receive the honor for a work of short fiction. Paley passed away in 2007 at the age of 85, leaving behind a body of work that remains relevant and influential today. Her stories continue to resonate with readers for their insightful portrayals of ordinary lives filled with love, loss, and the struggle for justice.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"A person who doesn't believe in anything couldn't be an agnostic; that is like calling a fish an agnostic because it spends its whole life in water."

This quote suggests that being agnostic requires some level of awareness or belief about the existence (or nonexistence) of a higher power or spiritual realm. The metaphor of the fish and the agnostic highlights the idea that one who doesn't believe in anything, lacks the necessary awareness or experience to truly be an agnostic, as they have not immersed themselves in the subject matter (like a fish living in water). In essence, Paley encourages us to acknowledge our own beliefs and engage with questions of spirituality rather than dismissing them without thought.

"The problem with television is that these days, pretty much everything that's worth watching is on public television or cable."

This quote implies a criticism towards modern television programming, suggesting that quality content is no longer readily available on traditional, free-to-air broadcast networks. Instead, one must seek out more niche channels like Public Television (PBS) or premium services like cable TV to find shows worth watching. It suggests a trend where commercial interests may be diluting the quality of entertainment offered on mainstream television in favor of mass appeal and advertising revenue.

"Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you make the whole trip that way."

This quote suggests that writing, like driving at night in dense fog, involves moving forward with limited visibility. Just as a driver can only see the immediate area illuminated by their headlights, writers can only focus on the words immediately in front of them. However, through continuous effort and progression, they eventually reach their destination, much like completing a written work. Despite the uncertainties and challenges that come with writing, one should persist because, over time, the complete piece will come together.

"You don't have to be a genius, or a great actor/actress, but you have to know the lines."

This quote by Grace Paley suggests that achieving success in any field doesn't necessarily require exceptional talent or celebrity status, but rather, it demands dedication, hard work, and an understanding of one's role or responsibilities - in other words, knowing the essential requirements and tasks that need to be accomplished. In essence, she encourages everyone to take their roles seriously and perform diligently in whatever capacity they find themselves.

"If I didn't write, I think I would feel like a well-stocked warehouse with no door."

This quote highlights that for Grace Paley, writing is not just an outlet or activity; it's a vital aspect of her being. Comparing herself to a 'well-stocked warehouse', she suggests that all these ideas, stories, and emotions are accumulating within her if she does not express them through writing. Without the 'door' (or act of writing), there is no release or expression for these internal thoughts and feelings, leaving her in a state of unfulfillment and possibly emotional strain.

Most of the Women's Libbers I knew really didn't want to have a piece of the men's pie. They thought that pie was kind of poisonous, toxic, really full of weapons, poison gases, all kinds of mean junk we didn't even want a slice of.

- Grace Paley

Thought, Kinds, Poisonous, Slice

I was a fantastic student until ten, and then my mind began to wander.

- Grace Paley

Mind, Student, Began, Wander

All that is really necessary for survival of the fittest, it seems, is an interest in life, good, bad or peculiar.

- Grace Paley

Bad, Necessary, Fittest, Peculiar

You have to really understand how people speak, and you have to reconstruct it... Most pleasure in writing, you know, is in inventing.

- Grace Paley

Pleasure, How, Most, Reconstruct

That's the trouble with stories. People start out fantastic. You think they're extraordinary, but it turns out as the work goes along, they're just average with a good education.

- Grace Paley

Think, Average, Stories, Good Education

The word career is a divisive word. It's a word that divides the normal life from business or professional life.

- Grace Paley

Career, Normal, Divisive, Divides

'The Immigrant Story,' which took me about twenty-five years to write, was a very simple story, but I couldn't think of how to tell it. Then twenty years after I started it, I found this one page and realized it was going to be the story. That's the only way you get it sometimes.

- Grace Paley

Sometimes, Tell, Very, Twenty

I was a woman writing at the early moment when small drops of worried resentment and noble rage were secretly, slowly building into the second wave of the women's movement. I didn't know my small-drop presence or usefulness in this accumulation.

- Grace Paley

Woman, Small, Usefulness, Presence

I don't believe civilization can do a lot more than educate a person's senses.

- Grace Paley

Civilization, Senses, Lot, Educate

In the end, long life is the reward, strength, and beauty.

- Grace Paley

Strength, Reward, Long Life, In The End

Rosiness is not a worse windowpane than gloomy gray when viewing the world.

- Grace Paley

World, Gray, Than, Gloomy

Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life.

- Grace Paley

Destiny, Everyone, Deserves, Invented

What I generally tell a class is that if you're not interested in anybody else's work but your own, take another class.

- Grace Paley

Work, Tell, Anybody, Not Interested

I see women as oppressed, but I don't see them as victims; I see them rising all the time. I see them as very strong.

- Grace Paley

Strong, Rising, Very, Victims

Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.

- Grace Paley

World, Go, Let Us, Rage

I believe in a kind of fidelity to your own early ideas; it's a kind of antagonism in me to prevailing fads.

- Grace Paley

Antagonism, Prevailing, Fads, I Believe In

Poets take themselves very seriously.

- Grace Paley

Themselves, Very, Take, Poets

What I'm interested in doing in a story is bringing certain different languages, people, events together and then letting the reader make what he wants of it.

- Grace Paley

Doing, Languages, Reader, Events

In prose, I think you sometimes have to write in very plain language, where every line may not seem to be so important, though in all writing every line is important.

- Grace Paley

Think, Prose, Very, Plain

Whatever you do, life don't stop. It only sits a minute and dreams a dream.

- Grace Paley

Dream, Stop, Only, Minute

I developed a definition - which I think becomes less and less accurate as poetry moves into the world - that poetry was a way of speaking to the world, but fiction was a way to get the world to speak to me.

- Grace Paley

Think, I Think, Which, Moves

A relationship with young people is very important to me. It's important to have a sense of what's going on in their world and not just in my own. So the opportunity teaching provides is a gift.

- Grace Paley

Gift, Young, Very, Teaching

Sometimes, walking with a friend, I forget the world.

- Grace Paley

Walking, World, Forget, Friend

I didn't write any fiction until I was past thirty.

- Grace Paley

Past, Fiction, Until, Thirty

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