Spiritual Quote of the Day (Mary Karr, on Prayer ‘In Times of Pressure or Anxiety’)

“In times of pressure or anxiety—like when Mother was dying—I’ll do a daily rosary for everybody. Or I’ll light candles and climb in the bathtub, try to put my mind where my body is—the best prayers are completely silent. Otherwise, I do a lot of begging. I just beg, beg, beg, beg like a dog, for myself and those I love. And I do the cursory, ‘If it’s your will . . .’ but God knows that I want everything when I want it…. The real prayer happens when I’m really desperate, like when I was going through a period of illness last year. Amazing what power there is in surrender to suffering. Most of my life I dodged it, or tried to drink it away—'it’ being any reality that discomfited me.”—American poet, songwriter, essayist, memoirist—and Roman Catholic convert—Mary Karr, “The Art of Memoir No. 1,” interviewed by Amanda Fortini, The Paris Review (Winter 2009)

Quote of the Day (Mary Karr, on the ‘Emotional Conviction’ of Memoirs)

“Most memoirs will suck, as most novels do. But the most whiny memoir is written by someone passionately attached to his or her subject matter. And the connectedness of that single voice is something readers long for now. You get that connectedness in good fiction of course, even books with the chilliest narrators. But memoir guarantees emotional conviction of its writer, which is unfashionable nowadays—low-rent.”—American poet, essayist and memoirist Mary Karr quoted in Dick Donahue, “The Monday Interview: Mary Karr,” Publishers Weekly, Nov. 9, 2009

Quote of the Day (Mary Karr, on Why People Fight Hope and Happiness)

“The reason people fight against being hopeful is because it sets you up to be disappointed. The reason people fight happiness is because if you don’t hope for anything, you never have your heart broken.” —Memoirist Mary Karr quoted in Alexandra Wolfe, “Mary Karr” (“Weekend Confidential” column), The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 5-6, 2015

Quote of the Day (Mary Karr, on How We ‘Lean Into Love’)

“That's what's so gorgeous about humanity. It doesn't matter how bleak our daily lives are, we still fight for the light. I think that's our divinity. We lean into love, even in the most hideous circumstances. We manage to hope."--Mary Karr, “The Art of Memoir No. 1,” interviewed by Amanda Fortini, The Paris Review (Winter 2009)