I find a great deal of comfort and care in my faith and prayer. I'd sooner do without air than prayer. Mary Karr More Quotes by Mary Karr More Quotes From Mary Karr I was 40 years old before I became an overnight success, and I'd been publishing for 20 years. Mary Karr overnight-success publishing years I get about five memoirs per week in my mailbox, and few of them inspire anything but a desire to pick up the channel changer. Mary Karr week desire inspire I've never contended that I had a really horrible life. Mary Karr horrible-life horrible I'm not nearly smart enough or imaginative enough to tackle the novel form. Never happen. Mary Karr smart form enough It turned out to be impossible for me to 'run away' in the sense other American teenagers did. Any movement at all was taken for progress in my family. Mary Karr teenager family running Those are only rumors of suffering. Real suffering has a face and a smell. It lasts in the most intense form no matter what you drape over it. And it knows your name. Mary Karr smell real names Im always terrified when Im writing. Mary Karr terrified writing I'd spent way more years worrying about how to look like a poet -- buying black clothes, smearing on scarlet lipstick, languidly draping myself over thrift-store furniture -- than I had learning how to assemble words in some discernible order. Mary Karr clothes order years Ninety percent of what's wrong with you could be cured with a hot bath, Mary Karr magic winning want If you lie to your husband - even about something so banal as how much you drink - each lie is a brick in a wall going up between you, and when he tells you he loves you, it's deflected away. Mary Karr wall husband lying The shreiking fight or the out-of-character insult endures forever, while the daily sweetness dissolves like sugar in water. Mary Karr fighting character water It strikes me that whatever advantages there are to being a boy--getting to stay out late and having other people wash your clothes and bring you plates of stuff--get undercut by having to play football. Mary Karr play football boys He never gave up on me, I only stopped being matriculated. Mary Karr gave-up Mother’s particular devils had remained mysterious to me for decades. So had her past. Few born liars ever intentionally embark in truth’s direction, even those who believe that such a journey might axiomatically set them free. Mary Karr mother liars believe The voice of God does not pander, offers no five-year plan, no long-term Mary Karr voice gun years When you do try to picture the boys who do ask you out, they're absolutely featureless, like old carvings eroded by centuries of rain and wind. Mary Karr rain wind boys I tell people not to write too soon about their lives. Writing about yourself too young is loaded with psychological complexities. Mary Karr psychological writing people I do have a really good memory. I mean, like, I can remember all the phone numbers of everybody on the street I grew up on. Mary Karr phones memories mean As a memoirist, I strive for veracity. Mary Karr veracity strive Age about 30, I stopped looking up my books in bookstores. Paying attention to the marketplace isn't a healthy thing for me. Mary Karr healthy age book