Quotenik
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Mary Karr

(b. 1955– )

U.S. poet, memoirist, essayist, and professor

“We sit in a silence it’s hard not to scribble in with chat.”

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source: Lit (New York: Harper, 2009), 342.

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medium: Memoir

“So amazon knuckles the Justice Dept to knuckle Apple and the publishers for price fixing. Why? Amazon wants to charge $9.99 for every book, as if it were an undifferentiated commodity. Intellectual property is not frozen orange juice.”

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source: Karr’s Facebook page, April 11, 2012.

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medium: Social media

“By age thirty, I’m not writing squat, which I blame on my ramped-up consulting schedule, knowing full well my favorite poet was a full-time insurance exec.”

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source: Lit (New York: Harper, 2009), 120.

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medium: Memoir

“So many interesting females in this deranged city.”

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source: Facebook status update, November 9, 2011.

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medium: Social media

“Writing about spiritual stuff for a secular audience is like doing card tricks on the radio.”

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source: “The Art of Memoir No. 1,” The Paris Review, Winter 2009, No. 191.

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medium: interview

notes: read transcript here

“Poetry is a hypodermic injection of passion. It gets under your skin like snake fangs and poisons you into being alive.”

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source: Twitter, June 28, 2010 9:27:40 PM EDT via web

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medium: social media

“The sky above us was going from musky yellow to purple. Colors of a cut plum, Mother said.”

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source: The Liars’ Club (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 10th anniversary edition, 319.

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medium: memoir

“I never knew despair could lie.”

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source: The Liars’ Club (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 10th anniversary edition, 320.

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medium: memoir

“Such a small, pure object a poem could be, made of nothing but air, a tiny string of letters, maybe small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. But it could blow everybody’s head off.”

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source: Lit (New York: Harper, 2009), 59.

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medium: memoir

“Counterphobic, a shrink once called it, meaning I run fast toward any event I suspect might be excruciating.”

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source: Lit (New York: Harper, 2009), 94.

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medium: memoir

“Count yourself lucky…You’re still promising until your first book’s out.”

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source: Lit (New York: Harper, 2009), 68.

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medium: memoir

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