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Vivian Gornick Quotes - Page 3

All Quotes Feminism Heart Literature Pain Science Understanding Writing
They may recognize themselves in what you're writing, and then they have to say, Well, she doesn't see me as I see myself. All a writer has is her own experience, and that experience comes out of human relationships.

They may recognize themselves in what you're writing, and then they have to say, "Well, she doesn't see me as I see myself." All a writer has is her own experience, and that experience comes out of human relationships.

Vivian Gornick
Writing, May, Wells
"We knew we were not liberated and were never going to be liberated. But we knew what liberation was". The Believer Interview, believermag.com. March 24, 2014.

Whatever a scientist is doing - reading, cooking, talking, playing - science thoughts are always there at the edge of the mind. They are the way the world is taken in; all that is seen is filtered through an everpresent scientific musing.

Vivian Gornick
Taken, Reading, Science
Vivian Gornick (2013). “Women in Science: Then and Now”, p.29, The Feminist Press at CUNY

What 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 Gornick
Writing, What Matters, Able

We cannot depend on change, but we can depend on surprise. However, we cannot always depend on surprise either. This keeps us on our toes.

Vivian Gornick
Expectations, Toes, Surprise
Vivian Gornick (1987). “Fierce Attachments: A Memoir”, Touchstone

for 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 Gornick
Self, Political, Feminism
Vivian Gornick (1978). “Essays in feminism”, HarperCollins Publishers

Research is the live heart of the scientific life ... Greatness of position, respect for past accomplishments, the Nobel Prize itself -- none of these can compensate for the loss of vitality only research provides.

Vivian Gornick
Heart, Loss, Past
Vivian Gornick (2013). “Women in Science: Then and Now”, p.27, The Feminist Press at CUNY

For the integrated human being there is no past: there is only the continual transformation of original experience.

Vivian Gornick
Past, Transformation, Being There
Vivian Gornick (1978). “Essays in feminism”, HarperCollins Publishers

in New York there's such diversity that there's no one central identity; everyone is marginal.

Vivian Gornick
New York, Diversity, Identity

Widowhood provided Mama with a higher form of being. In refusing to recover from my father's death she had discovered that her life was endowed with a seriousness her years in the kitchen had denied her. She remained devoted to this seriousness for thirty years. She never tired of it, never grew bored or restless in its company, found new ways to keep alive the interest it deserved and had so undeniably earned.

Vivian Gornick
Father, Tired, Years

a scientist or a writer is one who ruminates continuously on the nature of physical or imaginative life, experiences repeated relief and excitement when the insight comes, and is endlessly attracted to working out the idea.

Vivian Gornick
Science, Ideas, Work Out
Vivian Gornick (2013). “Women in Science: Then and Now”, p.30, The Feminist Press at CUNY

When the whole world is writing letters, it's easy to lap into the quiet within, tell the story of an hour, keep alive the narrating inner life. To be alone in the presence of one's thought is not a value, only a common practice.

Vivian Gornick
Writing, Thoughtful, Thinking

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