American - Novelist | 1966 -
My mother turned 40 in 1973. So in 1970 - when 'The Female Eunuch' came out and Ms. magazine was founded - my mom was 37 with two children, and she was just that little bit too old, and the circumstances of her life were set up in a certain way that for her to fulfill her ambitions and dreams, she would have had to break with the family.
Claire Messud
LifeFamilyMotherDreamsChildren
I feel as though there's a lot invested in my background in being an outsider.
FeelOutsiderBeingBackgroundLot
There is that time right around 30 when you think, your twenties have gone by, and now you really are a grown up, and you do have to figure out what you're going to do.
TimeThinkYouNowRightOut
I feel as though there are things that I'm trying to do - you know, capturing truthfully some aspect of human experience - and I'm trying really hard not to be fake. And in writing, as in life, it's harder than you think.
LifeExperienceWritingThinkFake
My tendencies are much more the Henry James thing, where we sit in silence at the table for three minutes, and our whole lives are changed because of a revelation that never quite happens but almost bubbles to the surface.
SilenceTableThreeMoreNeverSit
Don't go around asking the question, 'Is this character likeable?' and expect that to be compatible with serious literary endeavours. That's not what it's about.
CharacterGoSeriousQuestionAsking
My husband had a stalker, briefly.
HusbandHad
We're all living in some state of illusion, even if modestly.
IllusionLivingEvenStateSome
I still believe on some level that at the end, somebody will say, 'You get an A-minus for your life.' And it's not true. It's not true.
LifeBelieveEndYouSayTrue
If you know what you're doing, it's not interesting. It has to be a challenge; it has to seem impossible and urgent to do it. And then you do it.
ChallengeImpossibleInterestingYou
We live in a culture that wants to put a redemptive face on everything, so anger doesn't sit well with any of us. But I think women's anger sits less well than anything else.
WomenLiveCultureAngerFaceThink
Women's anger is very scary to people, and to no one more than to other women, who think, 'My goodness, if I let the lid off, where would we be?'
WomenAngerPeopleThinkGoodness
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Claire Messud quotes