Grace Paley Quotes

Sister Hinckley and I are learning that the so-called golden years are laced with lead.

There has been enough suffering in our country, there has been enough of children whose dreams die before they have a chance to grow and there has been enough of our elders who, having served their nation, are forced into indignity in their old age.

Old age is a woman's hell.

I always say that life is not easy for anybody. People hear about the young actors who have a rough life, but there are plenty of other kids who aren't actors who have a rough time, too, and I don't know if the ratio is any different.

The surest sign of age is loneliness.

For in all the world there are no people so piteous and forlorn as those who are forced to eat the bitter bread of dependency in their old age.

I felt rather exhausted, and wondered, rather shocked at my callous thought, why old people were sometimes such a strain. Worse than young children or puppies because one had to be polite.

Valentine's Day is different for old people. At this age I receive chocolates in boxes shaped like artificial hearts.

People don't die of old age, they die of diseases that accompany old age, and they are preventable.

When you get old, you can't talk to people because people snap at you.... That's why you become deaf, so you won't be able to hear people talking to you that way.

It is the common calamity of old age to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable.

It's just what people do when they're getting old, when they're sick of themselves and their life; they think of money and take care of themselves.

No one should be alone in their old age, he thought.

That's what happens when people reach old age; nobody remembers they've been bastards too.

Many people do not reach their eighties because they spend too much time in their forties.

People ought to be one of two things, young or dead.

When people become elders - when they're older; they can be old without being an elder, really. They [can] just be old and not very useful.

I'm sure we could all relate because we've all got life. Some people ain't got it

I don't mind pointing out some of the failings of old age, because we are all headed in that direction, unless of course we take our own lives before we become a burden. I'm not advocating suicide, oh wait, I guess I am.

Old age ain't for sissies

The fastest-growing population in the United States is the older people, because we are living much longer, healthier lives. The problem is, individuals often don't have the resources to take care of older people as they age. This is something that is happening, and we have to deal with it. It was happening also in my life.

A lot of people when they retire, they just expire. It happens to men more than women. Women usually have great interest in the family, because the family's always growing and they're always coming to the rescue.

Many old people receive pensions for no other reason, it seems to me, but as a compensation for having lived a long time ago.

Old age is not as honorable as death, but most people seek it.

Nothing is more ridiculous in old people that were once good-looking, than to forget that they are not so still.