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" I compromised my ability to tell my story, at the most basic level. "
Joyce Maynard
Ability
Level
Story
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" If I told you about all the stories I don't tell, I would be violating the very boundaries I set for myself. "
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Boundaries
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" Long after Salinger sent me away, I continued to believe his standards and expectations were the best ones. "
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Expectations
Believe
Best
" At Home in the World is the story of a young woman, raised in some difficult circumstances, and how she survives. It tells a story of redemption, not victimhood. "
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Young
World
Woman
" One life is not enough for me. I want to go lots of places. "
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Enough
Want
Places
" Although Salinger had long since cut me out of his life completely and made it plain that he had nothing but contempt for me, the thought of becoming the object of his wrath was more than I felt ready to take on. "
Joyce Maynard
Long
Life
Nothing
" The silence was part of the story I wanted to tell. "
Joyce Maynard
Story
Tell
Wanted
" If a man wishes to truly not be written about, he would do well not to write letters to 18-year-old girls, inviting them into his life. "
Joyce Maynard
Write
Wishes
Well
" It is not the task of a reader to please her subjects. "
Joyce Maynard
Subjects
Task
Reader
" When people ask what I write about, that's what I tell them: 'The drama of human relationships.' I'm not even close to running out of material. "
Joyce Maynard
Human
Ask
People
" Women writers have been told, forever, that our stories were not valuable. Not as valuable as men's stories about wars, business, power. "
Joyce Maynard
Women
Power
Men
" Those who rhapsodize about the ease and joy of childhood have perhaps forgotten what it's like to be 12 years old. "
Joyce Maynard
Old
Forgotten
Childhood
" Some literary types subscribe to the notion that being a writer like Salinger entitles a person to remain free of the standards that might apply to mere mortals. "
Joyce Maynard
Free
Person
Standards
" More than any other setting - more than battlefields or boardrooms or a spaceship headed for intergalactic travel - I'll put my money on the family to provide an endless source of comedy, tragedy and intrigue. "
Joyce Maynard
Tragedy
Comedy
Family
" I have long observed that the act of writing is viewed, by some, as an elite and otherworldly act, all the more so if a person isn't paid for what she writes. "
Joyce Maynard
Person
She
More
" Nothing like being visible, publishing one's work, and speaking openly about one's life, to disabuse the world of the illusion of one's perfection and purity. "
Joyce Maynard
Life
Illusion
World
" I believed my story would be helpful to young women my daughter's age, who are still in the process of forming themselves as women, and in need of encouragement to remain true to themselves. "
Joyce Maynard
Process
Daughter
Age
" It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself. "
Joyce Maynard
Children
Myself
Parents
" There is a theme that runs through my work, and that is: the toxic property of keeping secrets. "
Joyce Maynard
Secrets
Theme
Toxic
" My job is writing. I get paid to do it. When was the last time you heard someone challenge a doctor for making money off of cancer? "
Joyce Maynard
Writing
Time
Money
" A person who deserves my loyalty receives it. "
Joyce Maynard
Who
Deserves
Loyalty
" 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! "
Joyce Maynard
Work
Me
Live
" I think of myself as a realistic writer, not a creator of soap opera or melodrama. "
Joyce Maynard
Myself
Opera
Realistic
" I was giving a speech one time, and the woman who introduced me said, 'Well, she used to be J. D. Salinger's girlfriend. I thought, 'God, is that all I've been?' I didn't want to be reduced to that. "
Joyce Maynard
Time
Me
God
" The process of writing has always started for me when I put myself in a place where no one distracts me. "
Joyce Maynard
Place
Writing
Put
" For 25 years, I did take my responsibilities as a pleaser of others sufficiently seriously. "
Joyce Maynard
Take
Others
Did
" The vehemence with which certain critics have chosen not simply to criticize what I've written, but to challenge my writing this story at all, speaks of what the book is about: fear of disapproval. "
Joyce Maynard
Book
Writing
Story
" Teach a child to play solitaire, and she'll be able to entertain herself when there's no one around. Teach her tennis, and she'll know what to do when she's on a court. But raise her to feel comfortable in nature, and the whole planet is her home. "
Joyce Maynard
Child
Know
Home
" To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it. "
Joyce Maynard
Only
Endeavor
Alone
" The portrait of my parents is a complicated one, but lovingly drawn. "
Joyce Maynard
Drawn
Complicated
Portrait
" The big dramas that fascinate me are the quiet ones that happen behind closed doors in so-called ordinary families. "
Joyce Maynard
Doors
Happen
Behind