Women Authors From The United States

"As I understand it, George Peppard later became a nice guy, a gentleman, but when we worked together back then, he was pretentious, egotistical, a brat, and an asshole—and that’s just for starters! He pretended he was seven years younger than he was; he even claimed to be a bachelor and denied he was married—in front of me (I knew better), he denied their existence. The role of Jonas Cord in The Carpetbaggers really went to his big head. He acquired delusions of grandeur—thought he was God’s gift to women and the movies! His attitude towards me was very bizarre—he acted as though we’d never met! Or that I had a husband!"

"[She plays the role with] a piteously flimsy little twist of juvenile greed, inhibitions, physical yearnings, common crudities and conceits."

"“William Henry, when you were my student you honored me by noting down my words and philosophical maunderings. What said I on the subject of hate?” “A strong man hates no one, is enraged with no one,” whispered William. Spinoza continued. “He who lives under the guidance of reason endeavors as much as possible to repay hatred with love and nobleness. He who wished to avenge injuries by reciprocal hatred will live in misery. Hatred is increased by reciprocated hatred, and, on the contrary, can be demolished by love.”"

"“William, please. Heed your heart.” He thrust his foot into the stirrup. “No, it’s a singularly unreliable organ. I think I’ll use my mind, and...consider.”"

"Clouds boiled like a brooding frown in the west, and the sun drew fire from them as it sank burning and orange into their billowing embrace."

"“We are penetrating the mysteries of the cosmos, and the secrets of life at its smaller levels.” And it is wrong. You must grasp the purity of the whole, not tear from the Goddess the secrets of her heart.” “Spinoza says that the more we understand individual objects, the more we understand God. I think that is a very profound statement. Why does your goddess fear what my God does not? “The mechanistic path has led mankind to terror and suffering.” “No, ignorance and hatred and intolerance have led mankind to terror and suffering. And not all of our discoveries lead to death.”"

"There is no kindness at courts, only greed and lies and pain."

"He suddenly remembered Prince John Maurice’s assessment of the situation in a recent letter: The government lost its head, the people its heart, the country its hope."

"“Terrible things have happened. The de Witts are killed.” “Is this so terrible? They have been your foes from the moment of your birth, and though out of power would have continued to conspire against you.” “Sagi, if we must needs kill our opponents then civilization is a chimera. Governments are formed so that men may disagree without murder, and I tell you true, I loathe a mob more than anything.” “They acted out of love for you.” “That does not comfort me.”"

"“I want so much.” Haakon laid a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “So do we all.” The prince straightened. “And only in death do we find contentment.” “Lowering thought. Is there to be no happiness in life then?” “I think not. Each moment of joy must be paid for by a moment of equal pain.” “You Dutch merchants, always keeping the books in balance. Do you see God as an accountant?” William smiled slightly. “If he is he’s a shockingly bad one. I’m more than due for some joy.” Haakon caught Barbarossa’s reins near the bit and drew the two chargers to a halt. “Then find it in the moment, H. H. Find it in the moment.”"

"“I confess a fascination and love for clocks.” “Why?” asked Sagitta. “There is something so reassuring about a device which echoes the movements of stars and sun and planets.” “To seek to understand the spheres is to dull their music,” said the girl softly. “I don’t agree. The better one understands, the more one can appreciate,” replied William."

"“His heart and mind must be pure. He must put aside fornication—” Sagitta chuckled. “Dear Father, sex is the ultimate creative power. Your faith’s rejection of that principle will be its downfall.”"

"“What magic is this” asked one young German thickly. ”Not magic. Science. Preferable to magic.” “Oh really?” said Sagitta in a freezing tone, and William blushed. “You yourself have said there are very few people with the talent of magic. Science is open to all.” “When knowledge ends, only faith remains,” said Armand. “So we should abandon the pursuit of knowledge lest we diminish faith? That’s stupid,” said William belligerently. “The simple folk of village and cottage are happier if they’re not confused with things beyond their understanding,” declared Sagitta. “Sagitta, how do we know it’s beyond their understanding?” “Because if it weren’t they wouldn’t be common,” cried Solms-Braunfels, and there was another shout of laughter from the table."

"William too closed his eyes and prayed, but his world had lost its anchor. The Calvinist code which had dominated and supported him throughout his life seemed unequal to his present confusion. It was now apparent that predestination was a meaningless concept—certainly to one who had been told that his actions would directly affect the outcome of history for all time. But did that necessarily negate his faith entirely? Copernicus established that the earth orbited around the sun. Did God die in that moment? Or did man merely understand a little better?"

"Expediency is the god of princes."

"Magic is only useful against those with an affinity to magic."

"If you do not act, the world dies, and you with it. Surely survival is worth a little effort? Unless you are so eager to retire to that dismal heaven of your Christian god?"

"Your passion and loyalty do you credit, Hans, but they do little to convince me that you also possess a brain."

"Her career is marked by an unusually, even spectacularly, high degree of interpenetration between her publicly available private life and her films. The star phenomenon depends upon collapsing the distinction between the star-as-person and the star-as-performer. This does not usually mean that the incidents of a film's scenario are taken to be actual incidents in the star's life but rather that they 'reveal' or express the personality of the type-of-person of the star. In the case of Turner, however, not only do her vehicles furnish characters and situations in accord with her off-screen image, but frequently incidents in them echo incidents in her life so that by the end of her career films like Peyton Place, Imitation of Life, Madame X and Love Has Many Faces seem in parts like mere illustrations of her life."

"Lana Turner used to come in every Tuesday and Thursday. That girl can really dance, and she did at Billy's. She always asked me for "" and "." She used to like to dance with young , who used to win all of Billy's lindy contests."

"I always felt I had the full support of my parents... I was never made to feel that it was anything strange. When I first told my mother, her reaction was not one of shock, it was, "Oh, darling, you'll outgrow that." And then I didn't outgrow it. And I think that my parents were so happy just to see me happy that they didn't care where the happiness originated."

"Her hair was dark, messy, uncombed. Her hands were trembling so she could barely read the script. But she had that sexy clean quality I wanted. There was something smoldering underneath that innocent face."

"I find men terribly exciting, and any girl who says she doesn't is an anemic old maid, a streetwalker, or a saint."

"I don't jog. I don't think it is good for women. I don't think our bosoms, our innards [or] our ovaries were meant to be jumping up and down. And I can say for the gentlemen, I don't think it's so damn good for your innards too!"

"I don't think I realized how difficult it was. Forgetting the tragedy [the killing of Johnny Stompanato] for a moment, just [her] growing up. I didn't exactly think that I was stupid at the time, and of course my friends had children, and they seemed perfectly normal; my child was normal. But again, fate—all of this is preordained. Like, when I've been asked, "Miss Turner, would you change anything if you could?", well sure I would like to change a lot of things! You know, falsities and mistakes that I've made, but you didn't know it at the time. It's only in retrospect that you realize."

"My career was a hollow success, a tissue of fantasies on film. Cheryl loved my mother, and they were both comfortably endowed in my will. I had never before felt or believed I could be in such a dark hole mentally, physically, and worst of all spiritually. All the good in my life—my mother, my child, my work, my friends—was blotted out by the dead feeling that nothing really mattered. I hadnt heard that suicide was a cry for help. To me it meant putting a big stop to the pain and anguish. There was none of that Ill show them. Boy, they'll miss me when Im gone nonsense. I wasnt trying to hurt anyone. I was aware that everyone would go on and survive, but I knew I definitely could not. I wanted out."

"Always before in moments of crisis I called on that power we call God to help me through. This time, having lost faith in others and my faith in myself, I had lost my hope in God too. Now that hope returned. I really believed that He hadn't wanted me to die."

"Trash is something you get rid of—or disease. I'm not something you get rid of."

"Humor has been the balm of my life, but it's been reserved for those close to me, not part of the public Lana."

"All those years that my image on the screen as "sex goddess"—well that makes me laugh. Sex was never important to me. I'm sorry if that disappoints you, but it's true. Romance, yes. Romance was very important. But I never liked being rushed into bed, and I never allowed it. I'd put it off as long as I could and I gave in only when I was in love, or thought I was. It was always the courtship, the cuddling, and the closeness that I cared about, never the act of sex itself—with some exceptions of course. I'm not masquerading as a prude, but I've always been portrayed as a sexy woman, and that's wrong. Sensuous, yes. When I'm involved with someone I care for deeply, I can feel sensual. But that's a private matter."

"The thing about happiness is that it doesnt help you to grow; only unhappiness does that. So I'm grateful that my bed of roses was made up equally of blossoms and thorns. I've had a privileged, creative, exciting life, and I think that the parts that were less joyous were preparing me, testing me, strengthening me."

"My life has been a series of emergencies."

"My goal was to have one husband and seven children, but it turned out to be the other way around."

"I finally got tired of making movies where all I did was walk across the screen and look pretty. I got a big chance to do some real acting in The Postman Always Rings Twice, and I'm not going to slip back if I can help it. I tried to persuade the studio to give me something different. But every time I went into my argument about how bad a picture was, they'd say, 'well, it's making a fortune.' That licked me."

"I wish I could prove that he hypnotized me... That would give me a reason for doing such a dumb thing."

"The third day, I knew it was over. But I tried to make it last for three months."

"I had cut a typing class because I hated to type, and I still don't know how to type, but [now] I can afford to have people type for me."

"The truth is, sex doesn't mean that much to me now. It never did, really. It was romance I wanted, kisses and candlelight, that sort of thing. I never did dig sex very much."

"When I awoke in the morning, my mother and Julia Hislop were whispering in a corner. They didn't have to tell me why. I already knew that my father was dead. And when the feeling of peace wore off, the surprise at having known intensified my sense of loss and sorrow. Although I was only nine, I could imagine what death meant. I knew he was gone forever."

"Dr. King said he had a dream that WE would get to the promised land.Well, we’re here. We just have to live it. Through hard work and service to our fellow man, we can have it. In America, there is enough to go around."

"God spoke to me and God told me, "Keep your son,” And I did and he saved my life. My son saved my life. Had I not had my son, I would probably be dead right now."

"Lack of confidence leads us into the dark waters of envy. We see men are functioning without hang-ups—and like girls who envy the unfettered freedom of older brothers, we find it easier to focus on how "lucky" the men are and how "unlucky" we are. Sequestered in an unfair situation, we don't have to do anything about achieving the competence and self-esteem we so admire in others."

"The woman who has sprung free has emotional mobility. She is able to move toward the things that are satisfying to her and away from those that are not. She is free, also, to succeed."

"Only after she begins to disengage from her belief in her own helplessness can she break out of the vicious cycle of dependency and its brutal effect in her life."

"If girls could do nothing else in this world, they were supposed to be able to keep their blood from showing."

"We have only one real shot at "liberation," and that is to emancipate ourselves from within. It is the thesis of this book that personal, psychological dependency—the deep wish to be taken care of by others—is the chief force holding women down today. I call this "The Cinderella Complex"—a network of largely repressed attitudes and fears that keeps women in a kind of half-light, retreating from the full use of their minds and creativity. Like Cinderella, women today are still waiting for something external to "transform their lives"."

"Female physical frailty is not a reality but a myth with an agenda."

"[The Cinderella Complex] used to hit girls of sixteen or seventeen, preventing them, often, from going to college, hastening them into early marriages. Now it tends to hit women after college—after they've been out in the world awhile. When the first thrill of freedom subsides and anxiety rises to take its place, they begin to be tugged by that old yearning for safety: the wish to be saved."

"Women are brought up to depend on a man and to feel naked and frightened without one. We have been taught to believe that as females we cannot stand alone, that we are too fragile, too delicate, too needful of protection."

"There's something spectacularly freeing about acknowledging that one has both resources and limitations, and that both of these give shape to one's life."