Quotes from Mary Gordon

I think coldness is chic among writers, and particularly ironic coldness. What is absolutely not allowable is sadness. People will do anything rather than to acknowledge that they are sad.

People think I'm selling feminism in my books, but what I'm really doing is writing advertising copy for expensive private colleges that most women can't afford anyway. Oh, and try to find a job with a major in English literature. No luck? Joke's on you, sucker!

A fatherless girl thinks all things are possible, and nothing is safe.

Look, just because I'm an angry, repressed, Irish-Catholic feminist doesn't mean I hate everything. I only hate youth, beauty, the human body, nature, technological change, popular culture, and democracy. Oh, and I forgot to mention sex. And sports. And Andy Warhol. But other than that, I'm cool with whatever the kids are into. Really!

All the Jane Austen in the library cannot wash the Queens from this little hand.

I sometimes find it difficult to distinguish praise from blame.

One of the drawbacks of upward social mobility is a sense of guilty indebtedness to the old neighborhood.

Perhaps it is the intrusion of sexuality that marks the end of precision.

The Catholic Church in America is the Irish church. It is our church, end of story. We built it. We paid for it. It is ours. No Mexicans need apply.