The moon is always female and so am I although often in the vale of razorblades I have wished I could put on and take off my sex like a dress and why not? Marge Piercy More Quotes by Marge Piercy More Quotes From Marge Piercy We live in a media soup and are constantly being programmed or are fighting that programming. Thus any truthful account of a life, every part of a life, is about society as well as an individual. Marge Piercy media fighting soup Depressions, local and larger strikes, boom times, wars, repressions, all impact a life as do epidemics such as AIDS and pollution that may take years off a person's life. We all, whether we like it or not and whether we acknowledge it or not, are impacted by the racial attitudes we carry within us, and experience in some form every time we turn on the television, the radio, go to a movie, read a magazine or a newspaper, or walk down the street. Marge Piercy epidemics attitude war Looking at my life was very difficult. I think I learned that I haven't been as good a person as I'm inclined to think of myself as. I haven't been as good friend, haven't been as good a person, made a lot of mistakes. Marge Piercy good-friend mistake thinking I think having a great range of experiences in my life had helped me as a writer, particularly a writer of fiction. I have known a great many different sorts of people in different situations, and I have a notion how very well of badly people can behave in times of stress or danger or violence. Marge Piercy stress people thinking Obviously I find women more interesting than men to write about. Marge Piercy writing men interesting Everything you study, everything you learn, makes you a better writer, because you have more understanding of how things work. Marge Piercy study understanding The art of fiction is one of constant seduction. You must persuade the reader on page 1 to start reading - on page 50, or page 150 and yes, on page 850. Marge Piercy reading fiction art Suspense is one of the ways you persuade a reader to become engaged and stay engaged with your work. Marge Piercy suspense reader way I don't apologize for being sexually adventurous. Why not? It was often fun. When it wasn't - I didn't continue what wasn't pleasant. Marge Piercy apologizing why-not fun It's really important to visit a site you are writing about. Even if you know it well, even if you have lived there, it's important to take a fresh look in terms of your characters and your story. Marge Piercy important writing character I am a driven writer. I feel guilty if I don't write, not self-indulgent if I do. Marge Piercy guilty self writing I'm probably the only novelist who has ever written about political fugitives who actually knew a lot about them, had contact with them, and had a realistic notion of how they survived. Marge Piercy realistic novelists political One of the best gifts you can give a poet is to present them with field guides - to rocks, to stars, to birds, to wildflowers, to trees and bushes, to butterflies, to reptiles and amphibians. Because when you look at anything long enough to be able to identify it, you see far more clearly and you make a tiny beginning at understanding the life, the place, the history of that bird or rock or mammal. Marge Piercy butterfly rocks stars I don't think writers change the past any more than other people do, except in so far as we may mine our lives and change things for fictional use. Marge Piercy people past thinking I think we validate our lives through our actions. Marge Piercy our-actions action thinking Memory in Greek mythology is the mother of the muses, and it is so for me. Both personal and societal memory move me strongly, and that is one of the sources of my writing. Marge Piercy mother memories moving Sometimes when a character in a novel is difficult for me to enter, I sue something in myself or in my own life as a doorway into that character's mind and emotions. Marge Piercy doorways mind character There are obviously a great many ways to organize some fraction of the material in a life. Marge Piercy great-men fractions way I think that if you use something from you life in fiction, it metamorphosizes into something strange and different. Afterward it is hard to tell what actually was part of your life and what is part of the story of the fictional character. Marge Piercy different character thinking I don't find that writing about parts of my life had much effect except in some cases to improve my memory. To get into parts of the past I want to recall very vividly, I use a form of directed meditation. Marge Piercy writing memories past
