A good writer cannot avoid having social consciousness. I don't mean this about small pieces of writing, but about a big book. If it's a big book, there has to be more than one undertow. Marguerite Young More Quotes by Marguerite Young More Quotes From Marguerite Young If you understand hallucination and illusion, you don't blindly follow any leader. You must know if the person is sane or insane, over the abyss. Marguerite Young hallucinations insane leadership I believe that all my work explores the human desire or obsession for utopias, and the structure of all my works is the search for utopias lost and rediscovered. Marguerite Young obsession desire believe Every heart is the other heart. Every soul is the other soul. Every face is the other face. The individual is the one illusion. Marguerite Young soul faces heart A lawyer I once knew told me of a strange case, a suffragette who had never married. After her death, he opened her trunk and discovered 50 wedding gowns. Marguerite Young gowns wedding ghouls I try to teach my students style, but always as a part of life, not as ornament. Style has to come out of communicating coherent thought, not in sticking little flowers on speeches. Style and substance and a sense of life are the things literature is composed of. One must use one's own personality in relationship to life and language, of course, and everyone has such a relationship. Some people find it, some don't find it, but it's there. Marguerite Young flower personality people All my writing is about the recognition that there is no single reality. But the beauty of it is that you nevertheless go on, walking towards utopia, which may not exist, on a bridge which might end before you reach the other side. Marguerite Young journey writing beauty I would say my theme has always been paradise lost, always the lost cause, the lost leader, the lost utopia. Marguerite Young paradise causes leader If you don't have obsessions, don't write. my characters are obsessed. Marguerite Young obsession writing character When you have examined all the illusions of life and know that there isn't any reality, but you nevertheless go on, then you are a mature human being. You accept the idea that it is all mask and illusion and that people are in disguise. You see the crumbl Marguerite Young reality people ideas If there is no certain reality, the idea of following a leader must be scrutinized. Marguerite Young leader reality ideas I never thought of myself as either a woman or a man. I thought of myself as a person who was born to a writer, who was doomed to be a writer. Marguerite Young born fate men I would teach from nine to four, sleep an hour, and write from six until midnight, night after night. Marguerite Young sleep writing night Dreiser... I love... and almost wouldn't speak to anyone who ever attacked him. Marguerite Young speak love I knew Anais Nin, who called me after I had been away for a few years. She was seeking help because at that time no one would give her a decent review. She was made fun of. Marguerite Young time fun years There were also some cruel reviews by women, but the tone of the male reviewers, sometimes hysterical, was different. I have suffered, but I don't want to name names but there have been men who have seemed to want to destroy me or my writing, men I don't even know. Marguerite Young women names writing At the age of 18 all young poets are sure they will be dead at 21 - of old age. Marguerite Young poet age young I never fantasized or invented a thing, not one thing. I knew every single thing I ever wrote about. Marguerite Young one-thing I would never write realistic prose. I don't like people who try to write in a poetic style, but in the course of their book abandon it for realism, and weave back and forth like drunkards between the surreal and the real. Marguerite Young real writing book Life has no beginning, middle or end. Marguerite Young middle ends Don't blindly follow any leader. Marguerite Young hallucinations leader