Of course thereโs something there; unfortunately, thereโs always something โthere.โ Something you will one day be sorry you saw.
Mary GaitskillI think if a woman is very happy with herself and at ease with her choices, it goes a long way toward making other people feel at ease with her.
Mary GaitskillI know several women my age who are really poor...because they spent most of their energy taking care of children.
Mary GaitskillAdultery is like, here's the way it is, and here's exactly what you're supposed to do. It's like cheating at Monopoly. For me, it just doesn't apply to human relations. I mean, I use the word sometimes because it's fair and everybody knows what it means, but I find it a very irritating word.
Mary GaitskillI think that politics in most people's lives expresses itself like that: indirectly, in half thought-out opinions and feelings. And sometimes through a connection with something that is very real. But we don't have the knowledge or language to speak about it.
Mary GaitskillThat's why every society on the planet has very definite rules, ideas about how sex should be regulated, how sex should be expressed, what's okay, what's not okay. And I guess we do live in a place, and have for a long time, where there's more openness and there's more willingness to tolerate different kinds of behavior, but with that comes people creating other rules and other kinds of controls. It's always going to be a question of what's acceptable and what isn't and what's the danger point and what rouses people's contempt and what people are allowed to get away with.
Mary Gaitskill