Women Authors From The United States

"but don’t get uptight : the guns will not win this one, they are an incidental part of the action which we better damn well be good at, what will win is mantras, the sustenance we give each other, the energy we plug into"

"NO ONE WAY WORKS, it will take all of us shoving at the thing from all sides to bring it down."

"We had a birthday party for her when she turned 80 and there were, you know, punk rockers and, you know, trans people and old hippies and beatniks and little teenagers."

"I wanted everything — very earnestly and totally — I wanted to have every experience I could have, I wanted everything that was possible to a person in a female body, and that meant that I wanted to be mother. ... So my feeling was, 'Well' — as I had many times had the feeling — 'Well, nobody's done it quite this way before but fuck it, that’s what I'm doing, I'm going to risk it."

"I decided I didn't want to live with a man. My family experience of growing up made me think that living with men wasn't a nice idea. I had lots of lovers, and I asked people if they wanted to father a kid, and everybody thought I was insane, and finally I didn't ask — I just got pregnant and had Jeanne."

"There does seem to be an inclination to find ways to prolong life among people who have the most resources."

"I am always striving to push the limits of categories, and if people have a hard time classifying me, I see that as a very good thing."

"It can be dangerous, too, getting so involved in the minutiae of a setting."

"As far as I’m concerned: good writing is good writing, wherever you shelve it."

"My advice to all writers is to spend the time you need learning to write a great story. Read widely and write every day. Don’t limit yourself to a certain kind of writing, and write what inspires you."

"Everything I said I wanted to do, I'm literally doing."

"I don’t have the capacity for keeping secrets. If somebody ask me, I’m telling. Period."

"Every time you make a movie, the smallest crew could be 50, and the largest crew could be 500 people. That's, how many jobs are you creating? How much generational wealth are you creating when you get to tell and give other people the opportunity to tell that story with you?"

"People get so mad at me because I’m being myself. They’re jealous."

"When I was trying to be something I wasn’t, my soul was screaming at me. ‘What are we doing? This is not who we are. Stop it!’"

"Be you. You might actually find somebody that really loves you."

"We woke up successful today."

"I want to get paid because I know that if I’m getting paid a certain amount, that’s going to raise the price for everybody."

"I program the water to get me jobs. I program the water to bring me adventures. Whatever energy you put out, that’s what you get back."

"If I feel like crying, I just cry. It scares people sometimes, but I’m not keeping secrets either."

"Art provides a canvas for the artist to convey things which she might not be able to express verbally, putting distance between herself, the subject matter, and the person experiencing it — the viewer or spectator."

"[M]any young men feel their difficulties are often dismissed out of hand as whining from a patriarchy that they don’t feel part of."

"Not even the ashes of heroes have peace. Being great is synonymous with loneliness."

"Language has life because it lives in humanity...Language lives in me because it lives in everyone and everyone lives with it."

"The personal and the impersonal coincide because life itself impels them. Killing humanity kills language. Once the language is dead, the human self disappears."

"Every slave of a golden cage feels some hatred towards their master. Wondering the cause of such restlessness, they begin their emancipation."

"My feminism is the feminism of Puerto Rican writer Clotilde Betances Jaeger, who, in 1929 responded to the racist comment of Carrie Chapman Catt that Latin American women were not helping to build peace, by stating that while peace was a central principle for Latin American and Caribbean women, it was based on freedom from US imperialism."

"About a year and a half ago, I quit my job, moved to the countryside, and started a new life. Since then I've learned quite a few lessons on how to cultivate a feeling of abundance while living simply."

"I love to see animals running free. It reminds me to be grateful that cool weather and a space to play is enough, and sometimes that's all we need to be joyful."

"• Imagine you have a root system, much like a flower. Where are the roots? Are they in your mind, your heart, your entire body? Outside of your body? Where does your "strength" come from? • What are your sources of nourishment? Apart from your basic needs, is there something else you need? Perhaps it is a few minutes alone each morning, reading a book, creating art, taking walks, etc. What is it, and how can you incorporate it into your life? • What do need to flourish? What steps can you take to nourish your soul? • What other types of cycles can you notice within your life? What can the trends you see within your relationships, friendships, body, and emotions tell you about yourself? What wisdom can you take from them?"

"Many edible herbs and flowers can be used in tea and recipes. When it comes to tea, I find my favorite sources apart from lilac are chamomile and rosemary. Even if these flowers are not as readily available to you, the options of flowers and herbs to use are endless. I often pair the dandelion and chamomile with a touch of honey. In addition, each year I love to experiment with using these herbs in a variety of syrups, jellies, and baked goods. Once you know how to properly harvest and dry each herb, you can get creative with its uses."

"One of my favorite low budget ways to decorate is just to decorate with books. You can find interesting-looking books, almost anywhere, second-hand for very little cost. I like to get ones that I'm ... interested to read but also others that just speak to me. Their covers may be intricate, or the stories that are told can teach me something about the people who lived in the past and their perception of the world. Next time you go to a thrift store, maybe look out for some fun books within a specific color scheme or style."

"The thorns, the thistles, and the briers, in the field of politics seldom permit the soil to produce anything, but weariness to the body, vexation to the mind, and ruin to the adventurer."

"Our situation is truly delicate & critical. On the one hand we are in need of a strong federal government founded on principles that will support the prosperity & union of the colonies. On the other we have struggled for liberty & made costly sacrifices at her shrine and there are still many among us who revere her name too much to relinquish (beyond a certain medium) the rights of man for the dignity of government."

"Even the Italian master in politicks, the subtle and renouned Machiavel acknowledges, that no republic ever yet stood on a stable foundation without satisfying the common people."

"I have my fears. Yet, notwithstanding the complicated difficulties that rise before us, there is no receding; and I should blush if in any instance the weak passions of my sex should damp the fortitude, the patriotism, and the manly resolution of yours. May nothing ever check that glorious spirit of freedom which inspires the patriot in the cabinet, and the hero in the field, with courage to maintain their righteous cause, and to endeavor to transmit the claim to posterity, even if they must seal the rich conveyance to their children with their own blood."

"(What moves you most in a work of literature?) The joy and tragedy of the passage of time. Which is almost always what I’m trying to write about."

"The rights of individuals ought to be the primary object of all government, and cannot be too securely guarded by the most explicit declarations in their favor."

"The waves have rolled in upon me, the billows have repeatedly broken over me: yet I am not sunk down."

"America stands armed with resolution and virtue; but she still recoils at the idea of drawing the sword against the nation from whom she derived her origin. Yet Britain, like an unnatural parent, is ready to plunge her dagger into the bosom of her affectionate offspring."

"Q () was all by himself my college education."

"FPD! CRISIS! I sent that package off. The chief item in it was a 6-pound ham. I figured you could take it to a butcher and get it sliced up so everybody would have some to take home. But I just noticed on your last invoice it says: "B. Marks, M. Cohen." Props. ARE THEY KOSHER? I could rush a tongue over. ADVISE PLEASE!"

"... I was haunted by the fact that I didn't have an education and that I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to write plays but I didn't seem to realize there was something wrong with not liking to read plays."

"I never strongly identified with Puerto Rican writers from Puerto Rico. My writing comes from a different sensibility. However, we do share ethnicity. What some of them write about doesn't necessarily hold that much interest for me. It's also a question of social class. There is a certain classism in all of this. We are different because we write in another language. We are not living in a void. Some of their writing, as I said in my essay Puerto Rican Writers in the United States, Puerto Rican Writers in Puerto Rico: A Separation Beyond Language, is very baroque. I find that hard to relate to. I might have more in common with people writing in places like Prague or Ecuador. I have, however, read and liked very much Julia de Burgos and José Luis González and Magali García Ramis. But things are changing now. Now we have some Puerto Rican writers writing in English, like Rosario Ferré. That seems to indicate change."

"Nicholasa Mohr has proclaimed, over and over again-in her writings, in her words-her great love for New York, the city in which she was born and raised. She is a "Latino" New Yorker whose great warmth and openness, whose wide, welcoming smile embody the best of Puerto Rican social culture in that city."

"... the surest sign that a new year is beginning is that everybody is on a self-improvement-drive. From at 8th Street, to at 68th, half of New York is registering at some college for night courses in Philosophy or the History of Art which most of them will drop out of on the first sleeting winter night. And I, who hate novels, have begun lugging Joyce Carol Oates and V. S. Naipaul and Doris Lessing home from the library, in an attempt to Improve my Mind."

"(Which subjects do you wish more authors would write about?) I wish I could hear more about the details and peculiarities of characters’ jobs. Not a generically boring office job, but something terribly specific that we don’t normally get to hear about. I want to enjoy a novel and at the same time learn everything about eel fishing or asbestos removal or typewriter repair. And once in a while I want to read about people who like their work, people whose work isn’t a grind holding them back from self-actualization."

"The cultural-political perspectives of Jewish feminists interacted with the ideas of many other pioneering women's liberationists in the city, Jewish and non-Jewish, including Kathie Sarachild, Carol Hanisch, Irene Peslikis, Peggy Dobbins, Anne Koedt, Pat Mainardi, Robin Morgan, Ann Snitow, and Vivian Gornick. Acting within a communal context, innovative theory and practice emerged from group interaction."

"I feel a citizen of the world. I'm not really a Nationalist. I'm very fortunate; I can embrace any culture in the world and feel quite at home. That's a joy for me. New York gave me a sense of belonging that is not constricted by nationalism."

"I tackle that reality, how the children of Puerto Ricans who go back to the island are surprised when they find that what their parents talked about is a myth, that it no longer exists."