Words matter. These are the best Dorothy Allison Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I was born in 1949, and by the time I was 10, I figured out that my hope chest was not aimed in the same direction everybody else’s was. And that life was going to be very, very complicated. And that I could either be provocative and declamatory, or shy, retiring and scared.
Gravy is the simplest, tastiest, most memory-laden dish I know how to make: a little flour, salt and pepper, crispy bits of whatever meat anchored the meal, a couple of cups of water or milk and slow stirring to break up lumps.
Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside.
Teenagers are free verse walking around on two legs.
I have a terrible memory.
I think it’s wonderful that people in pickup trucks are buying two flats of dog food and a copy of ‘Bastard.’ I want my view of the world to be right up there next to gallon boxes of Tide.
One of the strengths I derive from my class background is that I am accustomed to contempt.
Two or three things I know for sure, and one is that I’d rather go naked than wear the coat the world has made for me.
Every kid I meet who’s a reader has got something like that, their fantasy world. And science fiction is the best, especially for girls because it’s the one place where you can do the forbidden.
It’s fun to tease people about where fiction and life intersect.
When I was growing up, I always read horror books, while my sister read romance novels.
If somebody gave you several thousand dollars and nothin’ to do but write, would you be a writer then? Would you tell your stories, your family’s stories, then?
The bottom line is I’m writing to save the dead. I’m writing to save the people I have lost, some of whose bodies are still walking around.
Watch out, or I’m liable to put you in a story.
I think I would have died if there hadn’t been the women’s movement. It gave me a vision that I could do something different, and it gave me an understanding that I wasn’t a monster, or sport, or a betrayer of my family.
It’s important to set challenges that you’re not sure you’re equal to.
Fiction is a piece of truth that turns lies to meaning.
The hardest thing to teach young writers is that it’s wonderful to tell your truth. And that’s what you should do. But it damn well better be beautiful.
If you write a book that’s as powerful and successful as ‘Bastard,’ there’s a strong desire to prove there’s something else.
Writing is the only way I know to demand justice from an uncaring universe.
I tell my students you have an absolute right to write about people you know and love. You do. But the kicker is you have a responsibility to make the characters large enough that you will not have sinned against them.
I think I would have died if there hadn’t been the women’s movement.
