Kates Quotes & Sayings

For many decades my relations with my parents constituted unfinished business. I had dealt with them through sheer avoidance and guilt. — Alix Kates Shulman

I see old age not as something to hide from or dread (though there is much to oppose in the usual treatment of the old) but rather as something to embrace as the natural and inevitable end. — Alix Kates Shulman

I am a feminist. I'm trying to show the relationships between men and women, always the structural relations, not individual villains. I'd never make a husband a villain. I try very hard in my work not to - because if I made one man a villain, the rest would be off the hook. I'm interested in the system of oppression. — Alix Kates Shulman

When you witness the end of a life up close day by day, you begin to understand time and mortality in profound ways. You see time's relativity, death's necessity. — Alix Kates Shulman

As Jules kissed my cheeks he whispered, She has nothing on you, of course, Kates. It's just that you're so very ... taken. — Amy Plum

If one day I should hear the hacker's slow, booted step on the stair, perhaps I'll suggest a cup of tea and try to get the story of his life. — Alix Kates Shulman

A half century ago Herbert Wechsler could justify the legal right of deadly force self-defense in terms of the "universal judgment that there is no social interest in preserving the lives of the aggressors at the cost of those of their victims." That is not a universal judgment today. — Don Kates

There is a lot of gender segregation. You still have many poor women who work in women-only jobs. In the family, in most cases, only women have the double job of working outside the home and taking care of the family. — Alix Kates Shulman

The 'militia' was the entire adult male citizenry, who were not simply allowed to keep their own arms, but affirmatively required to do so ... — Don Kates

People often say to me now, "Your work changed my life." I'm sure that's an exaggeration, but they say it had a big effect on them and enabled them to change. I'm not sure I believe that a book will cause someone to change. — Alix Kates Shulman

My family always says my voice is a gift - a precious jewel I inherited from my maternal grandma, Julia Kate Hudson. My sister and I used to joke that the 'Kates' in our family got all the talent. — Jennifer Hudson

It's always difficult to write honestly of one's deepest feelings, particularly without the protective veil of fiction. But the more difficult, the more rewarding if one succeeds. Rewarding not only to the work but to one's peace of mind. — Alix Kates Shulman

As for documentary, it was a natural progression from my earlier career in journalism. The two media are connected, but of course making films is much more complicated, because you have image, sound and music to work with, not simply words. — Nancy Kates

Our society has very much limited our choices, even regarding the food we think acceptable. — Alix Kates Shulman

For I am born to tame you, Kate,
And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate
Comfortable as other household Kates. — William Shakespeare

In my books, my idea is always to explore social context and social forces. — Alix Kates Shulman

You lie, in faith; for you are call'd plain Kate,
And bonny Kate and sometimes Kate the curst;
But Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom
Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate,
For dainties are all Kates, and therefore, Kate,
Take this of me, Kate of my consolation;
Hearing thy mildness praised in every town,
Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded,
Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs,
Myself am moved to woo thee for my wife. — William Shakespeare

For me, the most gratifying projects are ones that have the potential to bring people together - to overcome differences among various groups, and to spark dialogue. — Nancy Kates

The movement for women's liberation was about an emotional transformation, an explosion, a feeling all over the country that things must be different, and ideas about how they should be. I think fiction can capture that kind of thing better than other genres because in fiction you can explore the feelings of your characters - the before and the after. — Alix Kates Shulman

Usually, ordinary histories don't get the emotional feel of a period. That's what a novel can do. — Alix Kates Shulman

I think you get mentally ill being homeless. Most of the bag ladies wind up mentally ill pretty quickly - what people would call paranoid - because they are in such danger. I don't know if it's really paranoia because they are in great danger. Terrible things happen to them, and they lose everything. How could they not become at the very least severely depressed? — Alix Kates Shulman

As I experienced life on the island, without electricity, plumbing or telephone, I thought it was important to show that people can live as I did without dying or falling apart. I wanted people to understand that we don't need everything that our culture tells us we have to have to be satisfied. — Alix Kates Shulman

I did not intend to be a writer. I first wanted to be a lawyer, like my father. Then I got bit by the bug of philosophy and wanted to be a philosophy professor. I went to graduate school and quickly discovered it was impossible for a woman in those days - this was the early fifties - to be a philosopher, so I gave that up. — Alix Kates Shulman

Virtually never are murderers the ordinary, law-abiding people against whom gun bans are aimed. Almost without exception, murderers are extreme aberrants with lifelong histories of crime, substance abuse, psychopathology, mental retardation and/or irrational violence against those around them, as well as other hazardous behavior, e.g., automobile and gun accidents. — Don Kates

I don't really think myself that sex work is necessarily more demeaning than other kinds of demeaning work. — Alix Kates Shulman

The Second Amendment's language and historical and philosophical background demonstrated that it was designed to guarantee individuals the possession of certain kinds of arms for three purposes: (1) crime prevention or what we would today describe as self-defense; (2) national defense; and (3) preservation of individual liberty ... — Don Kates

For I am he am born to tame you, Kate; and bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate conformable as other household Kates. — William Shakespeare

You've become a fire within me." He pressed her palm to the center of his chest. "Right here. Bringing light to places I never knew were in shadow." His breath shuddered out of him. "I can't go back to the darkness, Fiona." Suza Kates, Chosen Blood — Suza Kates

A handgun ban is not realistically enforceable. Confiscating guns would require house-to-house searches and alienate the very individuals whose compliance is essential to the success of any regulation. If gun ownership were prohibited, organized crime would step in to provide the firearms that will continue to be procured with criminal intent. — Don Kates

When farming became a corporate venture, and the distribution of food became corporate, the variety of foods that were considered good diminished greatly. I know that there's a lot of misconception about this, that people think we have more food variety than ever before, but, in fact, if you read any of the studies, you'll find we have fewer foods than before. — Alix Kates Shulman

Sexism goes so deep that at first it's hard to see; you think it's just reality. — Alix Kates Shulman

When it comes to girls (and in Colin's case, it so often did), everyone has a type. Colin Singleton's type was not physical but linguistic: he liked Katherines. And not Katies or Kats or Kitties or Cathys or Rynns or Trinas or Kays or Kates or, god forbid, Catherines. K-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E. He had dated 19 girls. All of them had been named Katherine. And all of them- every single solitary one- had dumped him. — John Green

My mirror image always had to be interpreted. And for that I sought my reflection in someone else's eyes. — Alix Kates Shulman

I introduce the two girls. Kate leans over and whispers, "She's gorgeous!" And I respond with the truth: "She has nothing on you, of course, Kates. It's just that you are so very... taken. — Amy Plum

I refuze (refuse) to allow society to dictate my limitations. — Tony Kates

Within walking distance of any spot on Earth there's probably more than enough mystery to investigate in a lifetime. — Alix Kates Shulman

For two years I watched my parents' lives wind to a close. This made me aware of old age as a one stage, the final one, of a long journey. — Alix Kates Shulman

One important part of historical recording is to get people of another generation to understand the feelings, the passion that went into social transformation. That's why oral history is so valuable. — Alix Kates Shulman

Fiction is ideally suited to re-creating the important emotional aspects of history. — Alix Kates Shulman

The world is abundant with food for us, and with everything we need, if only we just open our eyes. There's so much food that gets thrown out or never harvested. — Alix Kates Shulman

How about I take you to my studio? Much less dangerous. Plus, I need a model and you could sit for me."
"You want me to sit for a portrait?" I asked stunned.
"Actually, at the moment I'm concentrating on full-length nudes, in the spirit of Modigliani," Jules said. He was making an effort to keep a straight face. "Just kidding, Kates. You're a lady."
Jules was trying the guilt-trip method of attack. And it was working.
"Ok I'll pose for you," I conceded. "But under no circumstances will any article of clothing leave my body whilst I am in your studio."
"And if you're elsewhere?" he asked, breaking into a sly smile.
I rolled my eyes. — Amy Plum

I like to tell untold true stories, or the lesser-known aspects of larger, familiar stories. I think people or topics that are slightly on the edge or outside the mainstream often reveal more than better-known stories. — Nancy Kates

When I became a feminist, when the movement started in the late sixties, I started writing because I had something urgent to say. My first novel, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, is the product of that urgency. — Alix Kates Shulman

Ironically, the only gun control in 19th century England was the policy forbidding police to have arms while on duty. — Don Kates

Children younger than 5 are twice as likely to die from ingesting household poisons than by gunfire - So the question for the Legislature should be: Is a parent criminally responsible for leaving an unlocked container of bleach below the sink? — Don Kates

I am not a psychological novelist, and I try very hard not to allow the reader to see the plight or circumstances of the characters as individual psychological plights. That's my preference; still, a lot of people do read my novels as psychological studies, and they're right to read them that way too, if that's what they mean to them. — Alix Kates Shulman