Grace Paley Professions : Writer Born : December 11, 1922 Died : August 22, 2007 Browse All Authors Top 107 quotes by Grace Paley What I'm interested in doing in a story is bringing certain different languages, people, events together and then letting the reader make what he wants of it. Grace Paley doing story together people '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 me you simple sometimes 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 understand me poetry world 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 me poetry speak world 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 think you language sometimes You have to really understand how people speak, and you have to reconstruct it... Most pleasure in writing, you know, is in inventing. Grace Paley understand you speak people That's the trouble with stories. People start out fantastic. You think they're extraordinary, but it turns out as the work goes along, they're just average with a good education. Grace Paley good you education work Similar Authors Ihab Hassan writer Ingmar Bergman writer Isabella Bird writer Ivan E. Coyote writer Al Feldstein writer Bert Sugar writer All Authors