197 Quotes by Marge Piercy

I like communicating with cats. I know them and their body language – as my own cats know mine very well. Cats are adept at reading subtle signals.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience, who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done, again and again.

A strong woman is a woman at work, cleaning out the cesspool of the ages, and while she shovels, she talks about how she doesn’t mind crying, it opens the ducts of the eyes, and throwing up develops the stomach muscles, and she goes on shoveling with tears in her nose.

Looking at my life was very difficult. I think I learned that I haven’t been as good a person as I’m inclined to think of myself as. I haven’t been as good friend, haven’t been as good a person, made a lot of mistakes.

Attention is love, what we must give children, mothers, fathers, pets, our friends, the news, the woes of others. What we want to change we curse and then pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can with eyes and hands and tongue. If you can’t bless it, get ready to make it new.

The powerful don’t make revolutions.

It’s really important to visit a site you are writing about. Even if you know it well, even if you have lived there, it’s important to take a fresh look in terms of your characters and your story.

Hate them more than you hate yourself, and you’ll stay free!

I wasn’t afraid of being poor; I rather took it for granted. I was good at getting by with very little. I couldn’t imagine sacrificing my writing to anything else.