Mary McCarthy
Mary McCarthy
Mary Therese McCarthywas an American novelist, critic and political activist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth21 June 1912
CitySeattle, WA
CountryUnited States of America
lonely deception ephemeral
With extramarital courtship, the deception was prolonged where it had been ephemeral, necessary where it had been frivolous, conspiratorial where it had been lonely.
mother children childhood
The only form of action open to a child is to break something or strike someone, its mother or another child; it cannot cause things to happen in the world.
regret thinking action
Is it really so difficult to tell a good action from a bad one? I think one usually knows right away or a moment afterward, in a horrid flash of regret.
average catholic religion
... the average Catholic perceives no connection between religion and morality, unless it is a question of someone else's morality.
variation morality uncertain
Morality did not keep well; it required stable conditions; it was costly; it was subject to variations, and the market for it was uncertain.
passion ordinary common
love of truth, ordinary common truth recognizable to everyone, is the ruling passion of the novel.
passion facts novelists
The passion for fact in a raw state is a peculiarity of the novelist.
successful past trying
The present can try to bury the past, an operation that is most atrocious when it is most successful.
real hazards helping
My occupational hazard is that I can't help plagiarizing from real life.
political speech looks
A politician or political thinker who calls himself a political realist is usually boasting that he sees politics, so to speak, in the raw; he is generally a proclaimed cynic and pessimist who makes it his business to look behind words and fine speeches for the motive. This motive is always low.
wall gun waiting
On the wall of our life together hung a gun waiting to be fired in the final act.
responsibility law judging
Proscription, martial law, the billeting of the rude troops, the tax collector, the unjust judge, anything at all, is sweeter than responsibility.
rights pleasure states
Once the state is looked upon as the source of rights, rather than their bound protector, freedom becomes conditional on the pleasure of the state.
sex talking making-love
Making love, we are all more alike than we are when we are talking or acting.