Latest Francine du Plessix Gray Quotes from Interviews

• As to why people like Joseph Lelyveld are writing memoirs, I think they're just catching on the coattails of the trend.

  Francine du Plessix Gray

  Writing, Thinking, Catching On

  "Conversation: Francine du Plessix Gray and Sean Wilsey". Interview with Boris Kachka, nymag.com.

• I was just reviewed by Robert Gottlieb, who was my editor at 'The New Yorker,' and he sort of wondered at the fact that I still need to exorcise my parents at my age. I think he makes a basic mistake in thinking that exorcism can ever be total. The exorcism of your parents will still be occurring on your own deathbed.

  Francine du Plessix Gray

  Mistake, Thinking, Editors

  "Conversation: Francine du Plessix Gray and Sean Wilsey". Interview with Boris Kachka, nymag.com. May 30, 2005.

• I didn't find this memoir of these two eccentric people so different from doing my memoirs of De Sade or Simone Weil. My parents in their own way are as odd as Sade.

  Francine du Plessix Gray

  Two, People, Parent

  "Conversation: Francine du Plessix Gray and Sean Wilsey". Interview with Boris Kachka, nymag.com.

• I think we're much more eager to know about our parents than we were in the seventies.

  Francine du Plessix Gray

  Thinking, Parent, Seventies

  "Conversation: Francine du Plessix Gray and Sean Wilsey". Interview with Boris Kachka, nymag.com. May 30, 2005.

• I think it's one of the reasons I wrote my book later in life. My parents didn't have these extreme alternations of conduct. They were very sweet to me.

  Francine du Plessix Gray

  Sweet, Book, Thinking

  "Conversation: Francine du Plessix Gray and Sean Wilsey". Interview with Boris Kachka, nymag.com.

• All our parents have levels of deviousness. We're driven to write about this discrepancy between the bright shining selves they invented and the monsters lurking underneath.

  Francine du Plessix Gray

  Writing, Self, Discrepancies Between

  "Conversation: Francine du Plessix Gray and Sean Wilsey". Interview with Boris Kachka, nymag.com. May 30, 2005.

• Mine [parents] started out more from scratch, because I'm constantly aware of what they suffered in the war.

  Francine du Plessix Gray

  War, Parent, Scratches