You can't reduce an actual human being; you're just writing! You're not doing anything to another person.
Vivian Gornickin New York there's such diversity that there's no one central identity; everyone is marginal.
Vivian Gornickfor me, the beauty of feminism is that it is a social and political movement that has redefined the power and obligation of the self: self-possession and self-regulation as a tool for social reform.
Vivian GornickIt seems that fiction no longer produces work that makes one feel the human condition deeply.
Vivian GornickWhat happened to the writer is not what matters; what matters is the large sense that the writer is able to make of what happened.
Vivian GornickLife, from beginning to end, is fear. Yes, it is pain, yes, it is desire, but more than anything it is fear; a certain amount rational, an enormous amount irrational. All political cruelties stem from that overwhelming fear. To push back the threatening forces, to offer primitive sacrifices, to give up some in the hope that others will be savedthat is the power struggle. That is the outsidedness of the poor, the feeble, the infantile. That is the outsidedness of Jews. That is the outsidedness of blacks. That is the outsidedness of women.
Vivian Gornick