“My last girl was Jewish, which is often a warm kind of girl, concerned about food intake and employability. They don't like you to work too hard, I understand, until you're hooked and then, you bastard, sweat!”Grace Paley "The Contest" (1959)
“I thank you, Papa, for your kindness. It is true about me to this day. I am foolish but I am not a fool.”Grace Paley "The Loudest Voice" (1959)
“I thought of praying for divine guidance in line with the great spiritual renaissance of our time. But I am all thumbs in that kind of deciduous conversation. I asked myself, did I, as God's creature under the stars, have the right to evade an event, a factual occurrence, to parry an experience or even a small peradventure.”Grace Paley "An Irrevocable Diameter" (1959)
“With a few grasping, kind words and a modern gimmick, she hoped to breathe eternity into a mortal matter, love.”Grace Paley "The Contest" (1959)