I think people try to make the most of their time on earth and also to fix their time on earth. They try to fix external verities, things that are true for all time, ideas that are true for all time: Rome will last forever! America will last forever! Beauty, as defined by the fashion industry, is one of those thingsโthis is beautiful. This will always be beautifulโand hold it in a way that has some sense of permanence about it, and absoluteness. And yet itโs not.
Mary GaitskillDani said this woman, with whom sheโd lived for two years, had never known her. โI feel like people accept the first thing I show them,โ she said, โand thatโs all I ever am to them.
Mary GaitskillI think politics are a part of life, so I have no resistance to it, but it's not something I set out to do.
Mary GaitskillOf course thereโs something there; unfortunately, thereโs always something โthere.โ Something you will one day be sorry you saw.
Mary GaitskillHe had lunch with Cecilia that afternoon. They ate their corned beef on rye and cream cheese with lox in a diner peopled by waiters who looked like theyยดd met with utter disappointment and become attached to 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