'The Immigrant Story,' which took me about twenty-five years to write, was a very simple story, but I couldn't think of how to tell it. Then twenty years after I started it, I found this one page and realized it was going to be the story. That's the only way you get it sometimes. Grace Paley findimmigrantpage share on social
Writing poetry, which for me was then saying how I felt about this and that, didn't help me to understand the world I lived in. Grace Paley feltlivepoetry Change image and share on social
Rosiness is not a worse windowpane than gloomy gray when viewing the world. Grace Paley badlygloomygray Change image and share on social
In prose, I think you sometimes have to write in very plain language, where every line may not seem to be so important, though in all writing every line is important. Grace Paley importantlanguageline Change image and share on social
I developed a definition - which I think becomes less and less accurate as poetry moves into the world - that poetry was a way of speaking to the world, but fiction was a way to get the world to speak to me. Grace Paley accuratedefinitiondevelop share on social
You become a writer because you need to become a writer - nothing else. Grace Paley writer Change image and share on social
I didn't write any fiction until I was past thirty. Grace Paley fictionpastthirty Change image and share on social
What I generally tell a class is that if you're not interested in anybody else's work but your own, take another class. Grace Paley classgenerallyinterest Change image and share on social
I often see through things right to the apparition itself. Grace Paley apparitionthing Change image and share on social
Most of the Women's Libbers I knew really didn't want to have a piece of the men's pie. They thought that pie was kind of poisonous, toxic, really full of weapons, poison gases, all kinds of mean junk we didn't even want a slice of. Grace Paley fullgasejunk share on social
