SOURCE: An interview in The Paris Review, No. 27, 196?, pp. 58-94.

In the following excerpt from an interview that was conducted in the winter of 1961, McCarthy discusses her writing, literary influences, and politics.

[NIEBUHR]: I remember that you published parts of Memories of a Catholic Girlhood as one section in Cast a Cold Eye. You changed the story about your nickname a great deal, reducing it to just a small incident in Catholic Girlhood.

[MCCARTHY]: I couldn't bear that one! It had appeared years ago in Mademoiselle, and when I put it in Cast a Cold Eye, I didn't realize how much I disliked it. When I came to put Catholic Girlhood together, I simply couldn't stand it, and when I was reading the book in proof, I decided to tear it out, to reduce it to a tiny tiny incident. As it stood, it was just impossible, much...