“I don’t think I was a particularly good or diligent mother. It took a long time for the obvious to become obvious: I could not operate in a conventional family.”

—  Annie Proulx

On women being expected to embrace motherhood naturally in “Annie Proulx: ‘I’ve had a life. I see how slippery things can be’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/05/annie-proulx-ive-had-a-life-i-see-how-slippery-things-can-be in The Guardian (2016 Jun 5) <br class="br">Personal life and writing career

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I don’t think I was a particularly good or diligent mother. It took a long time for the obvious to become obvious: I co…" by Annie Proulx?
Annie Proulx photo
Annie Proulx29
American novelist, short story and non-fiction author 1935

Related quotes

Charles Bukowski photo

“Getting drunk was good. I decided that I would always like getting drunk. It took away the obvious and maybe if you could get away from the obvious often enough, you wouldn't become so obvious yourself.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“The conclusions of most good operations research studies are obvious.”

Robert E. Machol (1917–1998) American systems engineer

Cited in: Paul Dickson (1999) The official rules and explanations. p. 14
Machol named this the "Billings Phenomenon". Dickson explains: "The name refers to a well-known Billings story in which a farmer becomes concerned that his black horses are eating more than his white horses. He does a detailed study of the situation and finds that he has more black horses than white horses, Machol points out."
Principles of Operations Research (1975)

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie photo

“I often make the mistake of thinking that something that is obvious to me is just as obvious to everyone else.”

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie We Should All Be Feminists

Source: We Should All Be Feminists

“All I can do is turn a phrase until it catches the light. There was a time when I got hot under the collar if the critics said I had nothing new to say. Now I realise that they had a point. My field is the self-evident. Everything I say is obvious, although I like to think that some of the obvious things I have said were not so obvious until I said them.”

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

Source: Memoirs, May Week Was in June (1990), p. 241

Paul Scofield photo

“I decided a long time ago I didn’t want to be a star personality and live my life out in public. I don’t think it’s a good idea to wave personality about like a flag and become labeled.”

Paul Scofield (1922–2008) English actor

Quoted in Benedict Nightingale, &quot;Paul Scofield, British Actor, Dies at 86&quot; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/movies/21scofield.html?_r=1&amp;ref=world&amp;oref=slogin, The New York Times (2008-03-21)

“If you think about it long enough, you'll see that it's obvious.”

Saul Gorn (1912–1992) computer scientist

Source: Self-Annihilating Sentences, 1992, p. 2; Cited in: Benjamin C. Pierce (2002) Types and programming languages. p. 313

Tennessee Williams photo

“I think that moral earnestness is a good thing for any times, but particularly for these times.”

Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) American playwright

Program notes for a Pasadena Playhouse production of Stairs to the Roof (1947)
Context: When I look back at Stairs to the Roof... I see its faults very plainly, as plainly as you may see them, but still I do not feel apologetic about this play. Unskilled and awkward as I was at this initial period of my playwriting, I certainly had a moral earnestness which I cannot boast of today, and I think that moral earnestness is a good thing for any times, but particularly for these times. I wish I still had the idealistic passion of Benjamin Murphy! You may smile as I do at the sometimes sophomoric aspect of his excitement, but I hope you will respect, as I do, the purity of his feeling and the honest concern which he had in his heart for the basic problem of mankind, which is to dignify our lives with a certain freedom.

Jet Li photo

“I spend a lot of time with my family. Because I think it's part of my life. I think the time...long or short is not the most important. I think the most important is the quality time...quality time with family.”

Jet Li (1963) Chinese martial artist and actor

As quoted in Jet Li Interview Transcript https://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/01/29/talkasia.li.script/ in CNN (January 29, 2003)

Ornette Coleman photo

“His musical inspiration operates in a world uncluttered by conventional bar lines, conventional chord changes, and conventional ways of blowing or fingering a saxophone. Such practical 'limitations' did not even have to be overcome in his music; they somehow never existed for him. Despite this--or more accurately, because of this--his playing has a deep inner logic. Not an obvious surface logic, it is based on subtleties of reaction, subtleties of timing and color that are, I think, quite new to jazz--at least they have never appeared in so pure and direct a form.”

Ornette Coleman (1930–2015) American jazz musician

Gunther Schuller, quoted in [All American Music: Composition in the Late Twentieth Century, 1983, Rockwell, John, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 0394511638].
About

Hillary Clinton photo

“One of my favorites is Angela Merkel because I think she's been an extraordinary, strong leader during difficult times in Europe, which has obvious implications for the rest of the world and, most particularly, our country… her bravery in the face of the refugee crisis is something that I am impressed by.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

[In swipe at Trump, Clinton names Merkel as her favorite world leader, Nolan D., McCaskill, Politico, 29 Sept. 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/hillary-clinton-angela-merkel-228926]
Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016)

Related topics