Joyce Maynard People Quotations

I wonder what it is that the people who criticize me for telling this story truly object to: is it that I have dared to tell the story? Or that the story turns out not to be the one they wanted to hear?

[On home births:] In a house where there had been three people, there were now four, although no one had come in the door.

It troubles me that people speak about writing for money as ugly and distasteful.

This book was written with a high level of awareness about the needs of other people in my life, and a respect for certain boundaries.

A man kind of dictates the rules about how he is to be treated, and for 30 years, people do what he says. I can't think of another public figure -- and he IS a public figure -- who has been allowed to do that. He's not a monster, but he's not a god. He's a man.

If people choose to live their life in a way that does not confront the more troubling aspects of their experience, that's fine, if it works for them. But it will probably make them uncomfortable if they come up against somebody like me. So they just shouldn't! They shouldn't read my work!