You know the mind is an astonishing, long-living, erotic thing.

- Grace Paley

I begin by writing paragraphs that don’t have an immediate relation to a plot. The sound of the story comes first.

- Grace Paley

Literature, fiction, poetry, whatever, makes justice in the world. That's why it almost always has to be on the side of the underdog.

- Grace Paley

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

- Grace Paley

Write what will stop your breath if you don’t write.

- Grace Paley

People will sometimes say, "Why don't you write more politics?" And I have to explain to them that writing the lives of women IS politics.

- Grace Paley

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

- Grace Paley

For me, the meaning of life is the next generation.

- Grace Paley

The only recognizable feature of hope is action.

- Grace Paley