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Alison Bechdel Quotes

28 Inspiring Quotes By Alison Bechdel, The Celebrated Cartoonist And Memoirist

Famous As: American Cartoonist Known for the Long-Running Comic Strip 'Dykes to Watch Out For'

Born On: September 10, 1960

Born In: Beech Creek, Pennsylvania, United States

Alison Bechdel is a famous American author, illustrator, cartoonist and memoirist. She completed her graduation from Oberlin College and went on to work as a word processor. She further started her own comic strip ‘Dykes to Watch Out For’ which was one of the earliest representations of the life of lesbians in the society. Her work became famous in the LGBT community and it turned to be a huge success and ran for almost 25 years in various newspapers. It was further collected in a book form ‘The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For’. After her enormous success she came up with the graphic novel ‘Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic’ and also wrote a memoir of her family life. She further wrote another graphic novel ‘Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama’ which portrayed her complex relationship with her mother. Her contribution to the comic world got her the ‘MacArthur Fellows “Genius” Award’. Her views on topics or issues close to her heart have appeared through the characters of her books or through her writings. Her writing has produced several quotes and shared by people. Her thoughts and quotations tackle the most serious and sensitive topics in a lighter tone. Go through these quotes by Alison Bechdel that will take you through some intentionally ignored part of the society.

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Grief takes many forms, including the absence of grief.

Grief takes many forms, including the absence of grief.
Alison Bechdel

I suppose that a lifetime spent hiding one's erotic truth could have a cumulative renunciatory effect. Sexual shame is in itself a kind of death.

I suppose that a lifetime spent hiding one's erotic truth could have a cumulative renunciatory effect. Sexual shame is in itself a kind of death.
Death I
Alison Bechdel

It was not a triumphal return. Home, as I had known it, was gone.

It was not a triumphal return. Home, as I had known it, was gone.
Home I
Alison Bechdel

I still found literary criticism to be a suspect activity

I still found literary criticism to be a suspect activity
I
Alison Bechdel

It was a vicious cycle, though. The more gratification we found in our own geniuses, the more isolated we grew.

It was a vicious cycle, though. The more gratification we found in our own geniuses, the more isolated we grew.
Alison Bechdel

I'd been upstaged, demoted from protagonist in my own drama to comic relief in my parents' tragedy

I'd been upstaged, demoted from protagonist in my own drama to comic relief in my parents' tragedy
Alison Bechdel

It's imprecise and insufficient, defining the homosexual as a person whose gender expression is at odds with his or her sex.

It's imprecise and insufficient, defining the homosexual as a person whose gender expression is at odds with his or her sex.
Alison Bechdel

It's our very capacity for self-consciousness that makes us self-destructive!

It's our very capacity for self-consciousness that makes us self-destructive!
Alison Bechdel

If there was ever a bigger pansy than my father, it was Marcel Proust.

If there was ever a bigger pansy than my father, it was Marcel Proust.
Alison Bechdel

The writer's business is to find the shape in unruly life and to serve her story. Not, you may note, to serve her family, or to serve the truth, but to serve the story.

The writer's business is to find the shape in unruly life and to serve her story. Not, you may note, to serve her family, or to serve the truth, but to serve the story.
You Life Family Business
Alison Bechdel

What would happen if we spoke the truth?

What would happen if we spoke the truth?
Alison Bechdel

Then there were those famous wings. Was Daedalus really stricken with grief when Icarus fell into the sea? Or just disappointed by the design failure?

Then there were those famous wings. Was Daedalus really stricken with grief when Icarus fell into the sea? Or just disappointed by the design failure?
Alison Bechdel

She has given me a way out.
Me
Alison Bechdel

My homosexuality remained at that point purely theoretical, an untested hypothesis. But it was a hypothesise so thorough and so convincing I saw no reason not to share it immediately.

My homosexuality remained at that point purely theoretical, an untested hypothesis. But it was a hypothesise so thorough and so convincing I saw no reason not to share it immediately.
I
Alison Bechdel

It's said, after all, that people reach middle age the day they realize they're never going to read Remembrance of Things Past.

It's said, after all, that people reach middle age the day they realize they're never going to read Remembrance of Things Past.
Past Never
Alison Bechdel

Feminism is the theory. Lesbianism is the practice.

Feminism is the theory. Lesbianism is the practice.
Alison Bechdel

If it weren't for the unconventionality of my desires, my mind might never have been forced to reckon with my body.

If it weren't for the unconventionality of my desires, my mind might never have been forced to reckon with my body.
Never
Alison Bechdel

Who embalms the Undertaker when he dies?

Who embalms the Undertaker when he dies?
Alison Bechdel

On our second date, she kissed me in a bar. I invited her home. We just caught the F train, which seemed like a good omen.

On our second date, she kissed me in a bar. I invited her home. We just caught the F train, which seemed like a good omen.
Me Like Home I
Alison Bechdel

I am not ultimately interested in writing fiction. I can't make things up. Or rather, I can only make things up about things that have already happened.

I am not ultimately interested in writing fiction. I can't make things up. Or rather, I can only make things up about things that have already happened.
I
Alison Bechdel

The sudden approximation of my dull, provincial life to a New Yorker cartoon was exhilarating.

The sudden approximation of my dull, provincial life to a New Yorker cartoon was exhilarating.
Life
Alison Bechdel

Again, the troubling gap between word and meaning. My feeble language skills could not bear the weight of such a laden experience.

Again, the troubling gap between word and meaning. My feeble language skills could not bear the weight of such a laden experience.
Experience
Alison Bechdel

I have never read Sylvia Plath. My mother has never read Virginia Woolf. In general, we have stayed out of one another's way like this.

I have never read Sylvia Plath. My mother has never read Virginia Woolf. In general, we have stayed out of one another's way like this.
Never Like I
Alison Bechdel

Psychoanalytic insight, Miller seems to suggest, is itself a pathological symptom.

Psychoanalytic insight, Miller seems to suggest, is itself a pathological symptom.
Alison Bechdel

How Horrid" has a slightly facetious tone that strikes me as Wildean. It appears to embrace the actual horror--puberty, public disgrace--then at the last second nimbly sidesteps it, laughing.
Me
Alison Bechdel

My research was stimulating but solitary

My research was stimulating but solitary
Alison Bechdel

Whatever we say, we’re always talking about ourselves.

Whatever we say, we’re always talking about ourselves.
Alison Bechdel

The idea that our unconscious possesses such sure aim excited me. I became more attuned to my own erroneously carried out actions.

The idea that our unconscious possesses such sure aim excited me. I became more attuned to my own erroneously carried out actions.
Me I
Alison Bechdel