Grace Paley Quotes
The only thing you should have to do is find work you love to do. And I can't imagine living without having loved a person. A man, in my case. It could be a woman, but whatever. I think, what I always tell kids when they get out of class and ask, 'What should I do now?' I always say, 'Keep a low overhead. You're not going to make a lot of money.' And the next thing I say: 'Don't live with a person who doesn't respect your work.' That's the most important thing—that's more important than the money thing. I think those two things are very valuable pieces of information.
Paley, Grace. Conversations with Grace Paley. Edited by Gerhard Bach and Hallie Kay Garnick, University Press of Mississippi, 1997.
At the time the nation was still feeling the effects of the Great Depression. There was high unemployment. Many conservatives thought that women should never work outside the home unless it was volunteer charity or church work. Many liberals thought that while there was unemployment, women should not take jobs away from men who had responsibility to their family. ER had seen so many women who were the sole source of support for their children and often an ill husband, that women working was an important concept for her. However, in 1937 this was a very radical position to take. As with many controversial issues, the president remained silent and let his wife take the heat. For people who were outraged the bad news was that the first lady had taken this radical position; the good news was that the President did not concur. Of course he didn’t oppose either.
Grace Paley was an American short story author, poet, teacher, and political activist.
