Sexism goes so deep that at first it's hard to see; you think it's just reality. Alix Kates Shulman More Quotes by Alix Kates Shulman More Quotes From Alix Kates Shulman I am a feminist. I'm trying to show the relationships between men and women, always the structural relations, not individual villains. I'd never make a husband a villain. I try very hard in my work not to - because if I made one man a villain, the rest would be off the hook. I'm interested in the system of oppression. Alix Kates Shulman feministhusbandmen I think you get mentally ill being homeless. Most of the bag ladies wind up mentally ill pretty quickly - what people would call paranoid - because they are in such danger. I don't know if it's really paranoia because they are in great danger. Terrible things happen to them, and they lose everything. How could they not become at the very least severely depressed? Alix Kates Shulman windpeoplethinking The movement for women's liberation was about an emotional transformation, an explosion, a feeling all over the country that things must be different, and ideas about how they should be. I think fiction can capture that kind of thing better than other genres because in fiction you can explore the feelings of your characters - the before and the after. Alix Kates Shulman emotionalcharactercountry I did not intend to be a writer. I first wanted to be a lawyer, like my father. Then I got bit by the bug of philosophy and wanted to be a philosophy professor. I went to graduate school and quickly discovered it was impossible for a woman in those days - this was the early fifties - to be a philosopher, so I gave that up. Alix Kates Shulman philosophyfatherschool Ever since Freud, being alone has been considered something of a psychological failure. The point, according to Freudian theory, is to be able to love and connect. But I don't believe that at all. I think that being alone and being coupled and being in a group are all natural states in which people can thrive. Alix Kates Shulman believepeoplethinking Solitude offers a lot that being coupled or being in a group does not. It helps us learn what we are capable of. Alix Kates Shulman groupssolitudedoe When you witness the end of a life up close day by day, you begin to understand time and mortality in profound ways. You see time's relativity, death's necessity. Alix Kates Shulman mortalityprofoundway For many decades my relations with my parents constituted unfinished business. I had dealt with them through sheer avoidance and guilt. Alix Kates Shulman unfinished-businessguiltparent It's always difficult to write honestly of one's deepest feelings, particularly without the protective veil of fiction. But the more difficult, the more rewarding if one succeeds. Rewarding not only to the work but to one's peace of mind. Alix Kates Shulman mindfeelingswriting For two years I watched my parents' lives wind to a close. This made me aware of old age as a one stage, the final one, of a long journey. Alix Kates Shulman journeywindyears
