Quotes by Joyce Maynard

About Joyce Maynard:

Daphne Joyce Maynard is an American author known for writing with candor about her life, as well as for her works of fiction and hundreds of essays and newspaper columns, often about parenting and family. The 1998 publication of her memoir, At Home in the World, made her the object of intense criticism among some members of the literary world for having revealed the story of the relationship she had with author J. D. Salinger when he was 53 and she was 18. Maynard is the mother of actor Wilson Bethel.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

There is something about the act of studying an unclothed body, as an artist does, that allows a person to appreciate it as pure form, regardless of the kinds of traits traditionally regarded as imperfections. In a figure drawing class, an obese woma...

Joyce Maynard

I believed my story would be helpful to young women my daughter's age, who are still in the process of forming themselves as women, and in need of encouragement to remain true to themselves.

Joyce Maynard

Many women my age have known the experience of giving up crucial parts of themselves to please the man they love.

Joyce Maynard

To share our stories is not only a worthwhile endeavor for the storyteller, but for those who hear our stories and feel less alone because of it.

Joyce Maynard

The painter who feels obligated to depict his subjects as uniformly beautiful or handsome and without flaws will fall short of making art.

Joyce Maynard

I tried to think of what my father would tell me. 'Don't let any boy give you shit.' But he'd never said how we should go about preventing this.

Joyce Maynard

A person who deserves my loyalty receives it.

Joyce Maynard

Long after Salinger sent me away, I continued to believe his standards and expectations were the best ones.

Joyce Maynard

Not only did I avoid speaking of Salinger; I resisted thinking about him. I did not reread his letters to me. The experience had been too painful.

Joyce Maynard

If people choose to live their life in a way that does not confront the more troubling aspects of their experience, that's fine, if it works for them. But it will probably make them uncomfortable if they come up against somebody like me. So they just...

Joyce Maynard

More than any other setting - more than battlefields or boardrooms or a spaceship headed for intergalactic travel - I'll put my money on the family to provide an endless source of comedy, tragedy and intrigue.

Joyce Maynard

Women writers have been told, forever, that our stories were not valuable. Not as valuable as men's stories about wars, business, power.

Joyce Maynard

At Home in the World is the story of a young woman, raised in some difficult circumstances, and how she survives. It tells a story of redemption, not victimhood.

Joyce Maynard

Teach a child to play solitaire, and she'll be able to entertain herself when there's no one around. Teach her tennis, and she'll know what to do when she's on a court. But raise her to feel comfortable in nature, and the whole planet is her home.

Joyce Maynard

A good home must be made, not bought. In the end, it's not track lighting or a sun room that brings light into a kitchen.

Joyce Maynard

The vehemence with which certain critics have chosen not simply to criticize what I've written, but to challenge my writing this story at all, speaks of what the book is about: fear of disapproval.

Joyce Maynard

I was giving a speech one time, and the woman who introduced me said, 'Well, she used to be J. D. Salinger's girlfriend. I thought, 'God, is that all I've been?' I didn't want to be reduced to that.

Joyce Maynard

Although Salinger had long since cut me out of his life completely and made it plain that he had nothing but contempt for me, the thought of becoming the object of his wrath was more than I felt ready to take on.

Joyce Maynard

If a man wishes to truly not be written about, he would do well not to write letters to 18-year-old girls, inviting them into his life.

Joyce Maynard

Nothing like being visible, publishing one's work, and speaking openly about one's life, to disabuse the world of the illusion of one's perfection and purity.

Joyce Maynard

Author Bio

  • NameJoyce Maynard
  • DescriptionAmerican writer
  • BornNovember 5, 1953
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist