“ Quando ero piccola mia madre mi lesse una storia su una ragazzina cattiva. La lesse a me e a mia sorella: ce ne stavamo rannicchiate contro il suo corpo sedute sul divano, mentre lei leggeva ad alta v… Mary Gaitskill
“ The two basic social identities were Normal and Greaser; although a few sophisticated girls wore peace signs, hippies didn't exist, and while a seminal punk band, Iggy and the Stooges, was playing in… Mary Gaitskill
“ Perhaps it should be obvious: Adultery is a social threat that arouses raw anger and fear, which the bellicose then need to discharge rather than merely feel, traditionally on the philandering wife or… Mary Gaitskill
“ At times she had thought that this was the only kind of connection you could have with people—intense, inexplicable and ultimately incomplete. Mary Gaitskill
“ The singer's voice is thin and fake, but it's pretty, and somewhere in the fakery is the true sadness of smallness and failure and believing in beautiful things that aren't real because that's the onl… Mary Gaitskill
“ The appeal of perfume is that it is at once ephemeral and empowering. It creates a shimmering invisible armor that lingers in a room long after its wearer has gone and infuses our imagination with a s… Mary Gaitskill
“ Today I’m Yours. It was a crude and romantic song. But human feeling is crude and romantic. Mary Gaitskill
“ Something like riding a horse - which I've recently started doing - requires courage, especially for me, as I started out being actually scared of horses. Mary Gaitskill
“ I used to start at about 10 at night and work until early morning. My preferred way to work is to start in the early afternoon and work until about 3, go do errands, have dinner, and then write for a… Mary Gaitskill
“ Feel like the bright past is coming through the gray present and I want to look at it one more time. Mary Gaitskill
“ Her mouth smiled, smiled hard, but her eyes did not smile, ever. Her eyes watched and looked for something they knew they’d never find. Mary Gaitskill
“ Writing is.... being able to take something whole and fiercely alive that exists inside you in some unknowable combination of thought, feeling, physicality, and spirit, and to then store it like a gen… Mary Gaitskill
“ God famously doesn't afflict Job because of anything Job has done, but because he wants to prove a point to Satan. Twenty years later, I am sympathetic with my first assessment; to me, in spite of the… Mary Gaitskill
