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
life character views
The strongest argument for the unmaterialistic character of American life is . . . that we tolerate conditions that are, from a materialistic point of view, intolerable . . . the food we eat, the cramped apartments . . . the crowded subways. . . . American life, in large cities, at any rate, is a perpetual assault of the senses and the nerves; it is out of asceticism, out of unworldliness, precisely, that we bear it.
strong self realization
For self-realization, a rebel demands a strong authority, a worthy opponent, God to his Lucifer.
house naked toil
The labor of keeping house is labor in its most naked state, for labor is toil that never finishes, toil that has to be begun again the moment it is completed, toil that is destroyed and consumed by the life process
europe america negative
The immense popularity of American movies abroad demonstrates that Europe is the unfinished negative of which America is the proof
thinking self quests
I suppose everyone continues to be interested in the quest for the self, but what you feel when you're older, I think, is that you really must make the self
men apes sides
Being abroad makes you conscious of the whole imitative side of human behavior. The ape in man.
political speech fancy
Congress-these, for the most part, illiterate hacks whose fancy vests are spotted with gravy, and whose speeches, hypocritical, unctuous, and slovenly, are spotted also with the gravy of political patronage.
elephants novelists forget
A novelist is an elephant, but an elephant who must pretend to forget.
fate people worst
To be disesteemed by people you don't have much respect for is not the worst fate.
together pairs poison
Life is a system of recurrent pairs, the poison and the antidote being eternally packaged together by some considerate heavenly druggist.
secret literature given
I'm afraid I'm not sufficiently inhibited about the things that other women are inhibited about for me. They feel that you've given away trade secrets.
austen jane
I am for the ones who represent sense, and so was Jane Austen.
men discovery earth
Modern neurosis began with the discoveries of Copernicus. Science made men feel small by showing him that the earth was not the center of the universe.
science equality matter
In science, all facts, no matter how trivial or banal, enjoy democratic equality.