{
  "type": "author",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "name": "Maureen Corrigan",
  "slug": "maureen-corrigan",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan.md",
  "image": null,
  "quotes_count": 10,
  "books": [
    {
      "title": "Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading",
      "slug": "leave-me-alone-im-reading",
      "quotes_count": 10,
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/vintage/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading_978-03-7570-903-6.jpg",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading"
    }
  ],
  "recent_quotes": [
    {
      "id": "9c7f55c5-2825-4745-8f56-b74b547a2387",
      "slug": "mr-wonderful-isnt",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading/mr-wonderful-isnt",
      "text": "“Mr. Wonderful isn’t just going to knock on the door,” a girlfriend once said, chiding me. “Why not?” I thought. That’s the way people often meet in books—effortlessly, without guile or strategizing.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 95,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "humor",
          "slug": "humor",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor"
        },
        {
          "name": "love",
          "slug": "love",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love"
        },
        {
          "name": "literature",
          "slug": "literature",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maureen_Corrigan#Leave_Me_Alone,_I'm_Reading_(2005)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:28"
    },
    {
      "id": "61f2e3ed-481f-4806-a427-d8d687f12218",
      "slug": "such-is-the",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading/such-is-the",
      "text": "Such is the power of words, of writing, of books. Words you loved and will always yearn for. They can inspire you with possibilities you otherwise would have never imagined; they can fill your head with misleading fantasies. They can give you back your seemingly seamless past and place it right alongside your chaotic present. “But that only happens in books,” my mother, pretty much immune to the power of the written word, would say. Exactly. That’s why I can’t stop reading them.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 184,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "reading",
          "slug": "reading",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading"
        },
        {
          "name": "literature",
          "slug": "literature",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature"
        },
        {
          "name": "words",
          "slug": "words",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/words"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maureen_Corrigan#Leave_Me_Alone,_I'm_Reading_(2005)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:28"
    },
    {
      "id": "1e79dcfb-a168-4784-a6a5-e2744541bd6f",
      "slug": "angels-in-the",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading/angels-in-the",
      "text": "Angels in the house always die in the books they preside over because early ascension into heaven is their reward—and because their goodness makes them boring.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 141,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "kindness",
          "slug": "kindness",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/kindness"
        },
        {
          "name": "literature",
          "slug": "literature",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature"
        },
        {
          "name": "boredom",
          "slug": "boredom",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/boredom"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maureen_Corrigan#Leave_Me_Alone,_I'm_Reading_(2005)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:28"
    },
    {
      "id": "fc194dde-431a-4929-8550-1934d25bad68",
      "slug": "jane-has-learned",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading/jane-has-learned",
      "text": "Jane has learned that there is a fate more terrible than solitude: it’s solitude in the company of a husband who essentially misunderstands you.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 29,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "loneliness",
          "slug": "loneliness",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness"
        },
        {
          "name": "marriage",
          "slug": "marriage",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/marriage"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maureen_Corrigan#Leave_Me_Alone,_I'm_Reading_(2005)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:27"
    },
    {
      "id": "d5b768b6-6801-4cdf-b1d2-4ef04467a753",
      "slug": "i-think-consciously",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading/i-think-consciously",
      "text": "I think, consciously or not, what we readers do each time we open a book is to set off on a search for authenticity. We want to get closer to the heart of things, and sometimes even a few good sentences contained in an otherwise unexceptional book can crystallize vague feelings, fleeting physical sensations, or, sometimes, profound epiphanies.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "reading",
          "slug": "reading",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading"
        },
        {
          "name": "authenticity",
          "slug": "authenticity",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maureen_Corrigan#Leave_Me_Alone,_I'm_Reading_(2005)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:27"
    },
    {
      "id": "b7f3a010-5d40-4b29-9ebb-a09913b9f68e",
      "slug": "we-read-literature",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading/we-read-literature",
      "text": "We read literature for a lot of reasons, but two of the most compelling ones are to get out of ourselves and our own life stories and—equally important—to find ourselves by understanding our own life stories more clearly in the context of others’.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 34,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "literature",
          "slug": "literature",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature"
        },
        {
          "name": "self-knowledge",
          "slug": "self-knowledge",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maureen_Corrigan#Leave_Me_Alone,_I'm_Reading_(2005)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:27"
    },
    {
      "id": "a3882f55-2cf0-4455-a7bf-f42108186977",
      "slug": "as-someone-from",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading/as-someone-from",
      "text": "As someone from our adoption agency said to us before we left, “You may have been waiting for your daughter for a long time, but she has not been waiting for you.”",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 48,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "children",
          "slug": "children",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children"
        },
        {
          "name": "parents",
          "slug": "parents",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maureen_Corrigan#Leave_Me_Alone,_I'm_Reading_(2005)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:27"
    },
    {
      "id": "79e768da-0bfb-4a8a-92af-f68314535578",
      "slug": "books-just-dont",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading/books-just-dont",
      "text": "Books just don’t register with this crowd. They think I lack common sense; I think they lack a part of their souls.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 57,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "reading",
          "slug": "reading",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading"
        },
        {
          "name": "soul",
          "slug": "soul",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/soul"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maureen_Corrigan#Leave_Me_Alone,_I'm_Reading_(2005)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:27"
    },
    {
      "id": "773ed86c-cbdf-4951-83aa-bde347e5eef6",
      "slug": "in-our-daily",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading/in-our-daily",
      "text": "In our daily lives, where we’re bombarded by the fake and the trivial, reading serves as a way to stop, shut out the noise of the world, and try to grab hold of something real, no matter how small.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "reading",
          "slug": "reading",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maureen_Corrigan#Leave_Me_Alone,_I'm_Reading_(2005)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:27"
    },
    {
      "id": "54ca6772-bd5e-4d76-be1d-f1b5f57d31c6",
      "slug": "i-dont-believe",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading/i-dont-believe",
      "text": "I don’t believe in identity politics in literature—or in life much, either. Indeed the current scholarly enchantment with identity politics strikes me as a more intellectual version of the warning oft heard around Sunnyside when I was growing up: “Stick with your own kind.” Family and cultural origins are crucial to self-definition, but they’re not the end of the story. I certainly don’t think that we readers only or even chiefly enjoy or understand books whose main characters mirror us. In fact, the opportunity to become who we are decidedly not—whether it’s Amis’s Dixon or Philip Roth’s Portnoy or Ellison’s Invisible Man or Kafka’s beetle—is one of the greatest gifts reading offers. Women readers get to serve on that floating boy’s club, the Pequod; male readers get to step into Elizabeth Bennet’s shoes and teach Mr. Darcy the dance of humility; readers of either gender who are not African American get to crawl toward freedom alongside Toni Morrison’s Sethe. One of the most magical and liberating things about literature is that it can transport us readers into worlds totally unlike our own.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 70,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "identity",
          "slug": "identity",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity"
        },
        {
          "name": "reading",
          "slug": "reading",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading"
        },
        {
          "name": "literature",
          "slug": "literature",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maureen_Corrigan#Leave_Me_Alone,_I'm_Reading_(2005)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:27"
    }
  ]
}