If I were ever to go mad it would be on Thanksgiving Day, that day of guilt and grace when the family hangs upon you like an ax over a sacrificial victim, like the oven's heat on that poor bird. Francine du Plessix Gray More Quotes by Francine du Plessix Gray More Quotes From Francine du Plessix Gray We write out of revenge against reality, to dream and enter the lives of others. Francine du Plessix Gray revenge dream writing I shall never cease to marvel at the way we beg for love and tyranny. Francine du Plessix Gray cease tyranny way One learns much more by writing fiction, because the insights come from those deeper subconscious levels where the greater and more interesting truths lie. Francine du Plessix Gray writing lying interesting Art is both a vengeance against reality and a reconciliation with it. Francine du Plessix Gray vengeance reality art Only friends will tell you the truths you need to hear to make your life bearable. Francine du Plessix Gray bearable friendship needs Why are there no great women artists?' sounds as ignorant of human geography as the query 'Why are there no Eskimo tennis teams? Francine du Plessix Gray tennis team artist The act of nutrition is not a purely physiological event... The family meal is a formality that cultivates in us... a capacity for sharing, generosity, thoughtfulness, a talent for civilized conversation. Francine du Plessix Gray generosity events meals As to why people like Joseph Lelyveld are writing memoirs, I think they're just catching on the coattails of the trend. Francine du Plessix Gray catching-on writing thinking I was just reviewed by Robert Gottlieb, who was my editor at 'The New Yorker,' and he sort of wondered at the fact that I still need to exorcise my parents at my age. I think he makes a basic mistake in thinking that exorcism can ever be total. The exorcism of your parents will still be occurring on your own deathbed. Francine du Plessix Gray editors mistake thinking I think we're much more eager to know about our parents than we were in the seventies. Francine du Plessix Gray seventies parent thinking I didn't find this memoir of these two eccentric people so different from doing my memoirs of De Sade or Simone Weil. My parents in their own way are as odd as Sade. Francine du Plessix Gray parent two people I think it's one of the reasons I wrote my book later in life. My parents didn't have these extreme alternations of conduct. They were very sweet to me. Francine du Plessix Gray sweet book thinking All our parents have levels of deviousness. We're driven to write about this discrepancy between the bright shining selves they invented and the monsters lurking underneath. Francine du Plessix Gray discrepancies-between self writing Mine [parents] started out more from scratch, because I'm constantly aware of what they suffered in the war. Francine du Plessix Gray scratches parent war Oh, save me God, but not quite yet. Francine du Plessix Gray save-me I write because in the act of creation there comes that mysterious, abundant sense of being both parent and child; I am giving birth to an Other and simultaneously being reborn as a child in the playground of creation. Francine du Plessix Gray writing giving children Americans and their desire to be novelists, the American novel should be listed in medical dictionaries alongside Megalomania and Obsessional Neuroses. Francine du Plessix Gray united-states novelists desire Friendship is by its very nature freer of deceit than any other relationship we can know because it is the bond least affected by striving for power, physical pleasure, or material profit, most liberated from any oath of duty or of constancy. With Eros the body stands naked, in friendship our spirit is denuded. Francine du Plessix Gray deceit naked body one forgives parents as naturally as one emancipates oneself from them - usually shortly afterward. Francine du Plessix Gray oneself forgiving parent Lovers, children, heroes, none of them do we fantasize as extravagantly as we fantasize our parents. Francine du Plessix Gray parent hero children
