Mary Mccarthy

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    The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass. Armenian refugees, Jewish refugees, refugees from Franco Spain. But a political leader or artistic figure is an exile. Thomas Mann yesterday, Theodorakis today. Exile is the noble and dignified term, while a refugee is more hapless.... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.
    Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)

    Parenting is the one area of my life where I can feel incompetent, out of control and like a total failure all of the time.
    —Attorney Father. As quoted in Reviving Ophelia, by Mary Pipher, ch. 4 (1994)

    Combativeness was, I suppose, the dominant trait in my grandmother’s nature. An aggressive churchgoer, she was quite without Christian feeling; the mercy of the Lord Jesus had never entered her heart. Her piety was an act of war against Protestant ascendancy. ...The teachings of the Church did not interest her, except as they were a rebuke to others ...
    —Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)