Mary Gordon
Mary Gordon
Mary Catherine Gordonis an American writer and the McIntosh Professor of English at Barnard College. She is best known for her novels, memoirs and literary criticism...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth8 December 1949
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
describe false fictional good habit mainly mind neither nor stems styles
If the moral good of fiction stems mainly from a habit of mind it inculcates in the reader, styles are neither good nor bad, and to describe some fictional enterprises as false is pointless.
claiming feminism feminists public though women
Feminism is very much a part of a lot of my student's lives, but they're not going to march about it or take a public political stance. And I think more and more young women are claiming that they're not feminists - even though they are.
lose seems turned
Everything that turned out well for me seems like a fluke. I feel like, at any moment, I could lose everything and be working at Dunkin' Donuts.
based job pension people policy taking until
I wasn't thinking about my pension plan until about two years ago. When I was in my twenties, the idea that you'd be thinking of taking a job based on its health-care policy was completely foreign. But these days young people are thinking about these things.
absolutely among chic ironic people sad
I think coldness is chic among writers, and particularly ironic coldness. What is absolutely not allowable is sadness. People will do anything rather than to acknowledge that they are sad.
happiness
We all of us deserve happiness or none of us does.
believe life primary
I believe that if your primary motivation in life is to be moral, you don't become an artist.
agenda canon common dogma influenced perspective seems somehow
'Catholic writer' seems like you have an agenda of evangelization, as if you were somehow influenced in your choice of perspective by dogma or canon law. That has nothing to do with me. I don't have a lot in common with other 'Catholic' writers.
books came coal great job joy largely life mine tramp worked
I don't have any great first job tales: I've never worked on a tramp steamer or in a coal mine or anything like that. I think the inspiration for my writing came largely from my father and the joy that life in books represented to me.
life
My life is so much better than I thought it was going to be.
american-writer cares genuinely guarantees relationship sexually
One should never be sexually involved with anyone one genuinely cares for. A sexual relationship guarantees a loss.
died guess metaphor quite
My father died when I was seven. I guess I am interested in fatherlessness as a metaphor for vulnerability and unprotectedness. Being on your own in the world in a way you're not quite ready for, ever.
became convert jewish politics
My father's politics and ideas were, to me, unforgivable. He was a Jewish convert who became very anti-Semitic, and I didn't find the anti-Semitism forgivable.
composed dish meat various
My favorite dish is bibimbap, which is composed of various vegetables, steamed and pickled, and meat toppings over a bed of rice.