Life, from beginning to end, is fear. Yes, it is pain, yes, it is desire, but more than anything it is fear; a certain amount rational, an enormous amount irrational. All political cruelties stem from that overwhelming fear. To push back the threatening forces, to offer primitive sacrifices, to give up some in the hope that others will be savedthat is the power struggle. That is the outsidedness of the poor, the feeble, the infantile. That is the outsidedness of Jews. That is the outsidedness of blacks. That is the outsidedness of women.
What you feel when you're writing is the relief of thinking: if you write the sentence correctly, you're clarifying. If you write the right sentence,… - Vivian Gornick
What you feel when you're writing is the relief of thinking: if you write the sentence correctly, you're clarifying. If you write the right sentence,…
- Vivian Gornick
The older I grow, the more I realize how unfit we are for relationships. We are all such antagonists. It's part of the human condition to be deeply u… - Vivian Gornick
The older I grow, the more I realize how unfit we are for relationships. We are all such antagonists. It's part of the human condition to be deeply u…
That's the hardest thing to do-to stay with a sentence until it has said what it should say, and then to know when that has been accomplished. - Vivian Gornick
That's the hardest thing to do-to stay with a sentence until it has said what it should say, and then to know when that has been accomplished.
The idea that money brings power and independence is an illusion. What money usually brings is the need for more money - and there is a shabby and pa… - Vivian Gornick
The idea that money brings power and independence is an illusion. What money usually brings is the need for more money - and there is a shabby and pa…
You are the instrument of your own illumination. - Vivian Gornick
You are the instrument of your own illumination.
Psychoanalysis showed me that I might be neurotic because I was a girl but, as Chekhov might have put it, I alone had to squeeze the slave out of mys… - Vivian Gornick
Psychoanalysis showed me that I might be neurotic because I was a girl but, as Chekhov might have put it, I alone had to squeeze the slave out of mys…
The point of women's liberation is not to stand at the door of the male world, beating our fists, and crying, 'Let me in, damn you, let me in!' The p… - Vivian Gornick
The point of women's liberation is not to stand at the door of the male world, beating our fists, and crying, 'Let me in, damn you, let me in!' The p…
Writing enters into us when it gives us information about ourselves we are in need of *at the time that we are reading.* How obvious the thought seem… - Vivian Gornick
Writing enters into us when it gives us information about ourselves we are in need of *at the time that we are reading.* How obvious the thought seem…
Every work [of literature] has both a situation and a story. The situation is the context or circumstance, sometimes the plot; the story is the emoti… - Vivian Gornick
Every work [of literature] has both a situation and a story. The situation is the context or circumstance, sometimes the plot; the story is the emoti…
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