Quote Drive: What’s Your Favorite Quote by a Woman?
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Deborah Siegel harnesses the wisdom of the She Writes quote borg. Got quote? Post it here!
You’ve heard of a coat drive, right? Well today here on She Writes, Kamy and I would like to introduce The Quote Drive (Kamy's ingenious phrase). Just as coats provide warmth in wind and gale, words from women—and in particular, women writers—can both comfort and heat up our soul. But I’m quitting with the analogy, before it devolves into cliché; you get the drift.
Here’s how it works; it's pretty simple. Post your favorite quote by a woman (or about women) in comments to this post.
Let’s cast our net wide:
-It can be by someone living or dead.
-It can be by a writer, a famous person, or someone well known(ish) with something kicky or poignant or true to say about the fairer (ha) sex.
-It can be by a fellow She Writer.
-It can be by you.
Be sure to attribute!
We’ll collect them over time, and we'll come up with a cool way, eventually, to share them. Stay tuned on that.
Here we go. I’m starting us off with a few from the women I spoke with on a panel about work/life balance across generations earlier this week in Kansas City, the “Women, Girls, and Ladies,” as we call ourselves. Because they inspire me to no end.
"Nobody loves you better because you have used yourself up for them." –Gloria Feldt, author of No Excuses: 9 Women Can Change How We Think About Power (pubbing Oct 5!)
"For a writer who's used to being in her own head, being around other people all the time can feel like a loss of self." -- Kristal Brent Zook, author of Black Women’s Lives
“I want to get good at failure, and redefine success.” --Courtney Martin, author of Do It Anyway: The Next Generation of Activists (just out!)
Plus, a bonus track from a new friend, who also happens to be Assignments and Syndication Editor at BlogHer and came to our panel in Kansas City this week (and wrote about it!)
“It's an extreme act of love to give the object of your affection time and space to feed her soul.” – Rita Arens, author of Sleep is for the Weak and blogger at Surrender Dorothy
Ok, your turn. What words by--or about--women inspire the heck out of you, or merely say something heartwrenchingly or gutwrenchingly true? And hey, after you post, tweet it too! (hashtag #shewritesdotcom)Share
part of the SparkPoint Studio Family
"Mientras dure la vida, que no pare el cuento"...( Carmen Martín Gaite )
You know, Elizabeth, a writer friend of mine who is a minister, introduced me to her book. There are many gems in that I've underlined the book. This quote is the one that prods me forward most right now. I enjoyed the book so much and I said I was going to read more of her writing, but I haven't yet. I think I'll put her on my reading list for this year.
Shari I LOVE Mary Pipher! She's a wonderful writer.
"Stewing in our own stress is not a good way to handle difficulty. Action ameliorates anxiety." - from Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher
Here are a few quotes by my favorite women:
"The world has so many lessons to teach you." Oprah Winfrey
"Sometimes you have to create what you want to be a part of." Geri Weitzman
Ralph Waldo Emerson was not female, but he had this to say about women: "Women are, by their power of conversation and their social influence, the civilizers of mankind. What is civilization? I answer, the power of good women."
SGI North America Women Leader, Matilda Buck, says, "I chanted to develop the greater self, fused with the life of the universe through which cause and effect intertwine over the infinite reaches of space and time."
"If you can't handle me at my worst, You don't deserve me at my best." - Marilyn Monroe
"If the trousers do not attract you, so much the worse; for the moment I do not want to attract you. I want to enjoy myself as a human being..."
Dorothy L. Sayers,
Address given to a Women's Society, 1938
"You don't have to be superwoman to change the world. You just have to take responsibility for your life and your community and realize that you have the power to do so, even from your own sticky kitchen table."-somewhere in the pages of Grassroots
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.~Helen Keller
The following quotes are from Anais Nin, and represent some of my favorite quotes:
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
"Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country."
"Your longing is your calling." Louise Hay
A couple of my many favorites:
"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity." -Gilda Radner
"I'm selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, am out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." -Marilyn Monroe
"You can lead a conservatard to wisdom but you can't make him think"......ME!!!
"I would never cook with a wine that I wouldn't drink".....Julia Child
"It hurts then to love. It is like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin" -- Susan Sontag
A woman of courage enters a room, and everyone is put at ease.
There is something appealing in the way she walks, and in the way she holds herself. ~ MAYA ANGELOU
"You must do the thing you think you cannot do." --Eleanor Roosevelt
“If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.”
- Billie Holiday
“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”
- Cyril Connolly
“If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
- Toni Morrison
...and of course my favorite!
"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you."
— Maya Angelou
Here are a few of my favorites: "I used to be snow white but I drifted." Mae West
"If truth is beauty, how come no one gets their hair done in the library." Lily Tomlin
"The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue." Dorothy Parker
Getting up early in November for NaNoWriMo always makes me think of this quote:
"I have a "carpe diem" mug and, truthfully, at six in the morning the words do not make me want to seize the day. They make me want to slap a dead poet." Joanne Sherman
"Well behaved women seldom make history." -- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
"Friendship between women is not about the things we do together. It's about the things we talk over together. We measure closeness and distances by the intimacies shared and understood." Ellen Goodman
We give attention to the things that matter most, whether it be of necessity or of preference. --Kathy Brown
"You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think." Dorothy Parker.
"To believe in something not yet proved and to underwrite it with our lives: It is the only way we can leave the future open." (Author/Activist Lillian Smith - a woman years ahead of her time)