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They would not be happy unless she conformed to their definition of enjoyment, which meant that she would have to be miserable to satisfy them.

— Mary McCarthy Birds of America (1971)

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Source and credibility

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Source: "Round Table, with the Damsel Parcenet"
Work: Birds of America, 1971
Source quality: Source identified Names the work or year, but without an exact location.

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You mustn't force sex to do the work of love or love to do the work of sex.

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Life for the European is a career; for the American, it is a hazard.

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You never learn a language unless you use it.

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As subjects, we all live in suspense, from day to day, from hour to hour; in other words, we are the hero of our own story.

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If you want to be your own master, his father used to say, always be surprised by evil; never anticipate it.

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I am putting real plums into an imaginary cake.

People with bad consciences always fear the judgment of children.

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Nobody in this land, certainly no Christian, can accept hating on a full-time basis; it is apt to reflect back on the hater.

How I Grew (1987)

I combine concrete cynicism with a sort of vague optimism.

She decided she wanted a cool, starchy independent life, with ruffles of humor like window curtains.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Mary McCarthy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.