Writing poetry, which for me was then saying how I felt about this and that, didn't help me to understand the world I lived in. I developed a definit… - Grace Paley

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Writing poetry, which for me was then saying how I felt about this and that, didn't help me to understand the world I lived in. I developed a definition-which I think becomes less and less accurate as poetry moves into the world-that poetry was a way of speaking to the world, but fiction was a way to get the world to speak to me. (1978 interview)