“Anyway, there is an essential difference in gender that isn't politically correct to mention these days. Women are the ones to bear the children after all. They are the ones to nurse. They are the ones, traditionally, who care for the infants. That takes a huge amount of time.'He smiled, waiting for the applause, but something had gone wrong. There was a cold silence from the crowd...'Did you just say that women aren't creative geniuses because they have babies?''No," he said, 'No. Not because. I wouldn't say that. I love women, and not all women have babies. My wife, for one, at least not yet. But listen, we're all given a finite amount of creativity, just like we;re given a finite amount of life, and if a woman continues to spend hers creating actual life and not imaginary life, that's a glorious choice. When a woman has a baby, she's creating so much more than just a world on the page, she's creating life itself, not just a simulacrum. No matter what Shakespeare did, it's so much less than your average illiterate woman of his age who had babies. Those babies were our ancestors, necessary to make everyone here today, and no one could seriously argue that any play is worth a single human wife. I mean the history of the stage supports me here. If women have historically demonstrated less creative genius than men, it's because they're making their creations internal, spending the energies on life itself. It's a kind of bodily genius. You can't tell me that isn't at least as worthy as genius of imagination. I think we can all agree that women are just as good as men, better in many ways. But the reason for the disparity in creation, is because women have turned their creative energies inward not outward.”

Share & Save

Meaning

Not documented yet.

When It Was Said

Not documented yet.

Who It Was Said To

Not documented yet.

Historical Context

Not documented yet.

Source

Not documented yet.

Original Language & Translation

Originally said in English.

Did They Really Say It?

Not documented yet.

Did You Know?

Not documented yet.

About Lauren Groff

American novelist and short story writer

Lauren Groff is an American novelist and short story writer. She is known for fiction that has appeared across five novels and three short story collections, and 79 quotes on this site are attributed to her. Her books include Delicate Edible Birds, Fates and Furies, Matrix, The Vaster Wilds, and Brawler. She also co-founded The Lynx Bookstore in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband, Clay Kallman.

More from Lauren Groff (79 quotes) →

READ THE SOURCE

Books by Lauren Groff

The monsters of Templeton

2008

VIEW ON AMAZON

Fates and Furies

2016

VIEW ON AMAZON

Florida

2018

VIEW ON AMAZON

Matrix

2022

VIEW ON AMAZON

Arcadia

2012

VIEW ON AMAZON