“I admire Eudora Welty. ‘Delta Wedding’ is a book I’ve given as a present to numerous women. Eudora Welty rocks. She writes such jewel-like, fine, refined short stories.”
— Nell Zink
“I saw a cardinal when I was in Brooklyn, and I was almost moved to tears. I was, like, ‘I can’t believe this thing is legal. I can’t believe this thing is in the wild. How did this happen? How has someone not killed them all? They’re so conspicuous. They’re gorgeous. How can they still be alive?’”
— Nell Zink
“Like beautiful homes, cute babies, or noble careers helping others, books can make us feel like we mean something positive, and in gratitude, we truly love them.”
— Nell Zink
“The library, like the thrift shop, specialised in the leavings of the elderly dead.”
— Nell Zink
“He informed Byrdie that his social engineering ambitions betrayed all the delusions of grandeur that you might expect from the son of a poet.”
— Nell Zink
“Peggy spent most of her time upstairs in the playroom, keeping him cleaned and fed. She was made to bring out the baby and accept praise for her work as if she were a being of a slightly lower social class – which she was. A woman.”
— Nell Zink
“When the past is hard to explain, it’s best to concentrate on the future.”
— Nell Zink
“The easy joy and the joyful ease of sex with men, their easy-access genitalia, their uncomplicated inner lives…”
— Nell Zink
“Lee explained to her that art for art’s sake is an upper-class aesthetic. To create art divorced from any purpose, you can’t be living a life driven by need and desire.”
— Nell Zink