Quote of the Day (Alice McDermott, on Perceptions of Literature Vs. ‘Chick Lit’)

“A woman narrating the story of her life with an annoying boyfriend was chick lit. A man narrating the story of his life with an annoying woman was, well, literature.” ― American novelist Alice McDermott, What About the Baby? Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction (2021)

The image accompanying this post was taken by Slowking4, showing Alice McDermott reading at the 2018 Gaithersburg Book Festival, May 19, 2018.

Quote of the Day (Alice McDermott, on a ‘Contrarian’ Approach to Writing Historical Fiction)

“I think many of us who write fiction are contrarians at heart. You know, the world says, ‘This is the this is the way the world is’ and we say, ‘Oh, no. No, we're going to make up our own world, even if it feels like the real world. We're going to correct it. We're going to tell it better. We're going to tell the story of history in a more interesting way.”—American novelist Alice McDermott, in conversation with David Rubenstein on “America’s Book Club,” C-SPAN, original air date Apr 19, 2026

The image accompanying this post was taken by Slowking4, showing Alice McDermott reading at the 2018 Gaithersburg Book Festival, May 19, 2018.

Quote of the Day (Alice McDermott, on Being Considered ‘A Woman’s Novelist’)

“I've been doing this long enough that I've been 'the soccer mom novelist,' I've certainly been 'the Irish-Catholic novelist,' so to be called a ‘woman’s novelist’ is about the broadest category I've found myself in so far. Maybe if I keep it up I'll be everyone's novelist.” ― American novelist Alice McDermott quoted by Emily Bobrow, “Weekend Confidential: Alice McDermott,” The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 28-29, 2023

The image accompanying this post was taken by Slowking4, showing Alice McDermott reading at the 2018 Gaithersburg Book Festival, May 19, 2018.

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Alice McDermott, on How Souls Are Saved by the Writer’s Art)

“All objects in fiction, even the most mundane, shimmer with mystery and meaning, with the souls of the dead as well as the image of some ultimate reality. Burnished buttons or shell-shaped cookies, mummified remains in a museum's glass case or a mundane registration card from the Florida DMV, these things are no longer simply the things themselves, but something transformed by the writer's attention, saved and stored and treasured by the writer’s art.”—Irish-American novelist Alice McDermott, “Last Word: Things,” Commonweal, July/August 2021

The image accompanying this post was taken by Slowking4, showing Alice McDermott reading at the 2018 Gaithersburg Book Festival, May 19, 2018.