Women Authors From The United States

"I like having an audience. I don’t think I ever work when I don’t have an audience, which is one of my great failings."

"I think I don't write fiction because I don't really know how to invent characters. I just know how to put myself into a character. So even when I read the Torah, I can't really fathom an old man with a beard Creator. I can only fathom kind of a childish, sweet, very flawed person taking a lot of joy in making things and then feeling really angry at herself for not making something better."

"I had complicated feelings about Judaism. I went to Jewish schools and synagogue and youth groups and summer camps. I’d always been an outsider as a kid. I was really shy and a little weird, maybe Asperger’s-ish, and I was really happy to get away from the suburbs when I moved to the city from New Jersey for art school. New York was a much more open-minded place, and the world of art seemed to like me for being unusual. I never rebelled against Judaism, though."

"I so much think of the Torah as just a story and, like, a beautiful window into the way people thought thousands of years ago and the way people were thousands of years ago."

"My grandma gave me the “Bintel Brief” book that she had—this collection of letters that was published in 1971—that’s when all the jadedness fell away. I was transported...The book (“Bintel Brief”) is a collection of short stories based on letters written to the Yiddish advice column “A Bintel Brief” that ran in the newspaper the Forward beginning in 1906. The letters were very intense—they were by new immigrants to the United States from Eastern Europe, and they deal with a lot of life-or-death issues—but they are also funny, weird, and sweet."

"I’m surprised that people relate to my stuff. I always thought of myself as not that relatable and maybe in person I’m not that relatable, but it warms my heart that people can relate."

"Our Congress, without any danger of war unless we provoke one by meddling, are continuously making appropriations for war ships to strengthen our Navy, in order to protect long stretches of sea coast, that no nation has the remotest idea of attacking, or to protect our foreign commerce, which has recently grown so small that one would need a microscope to discover it. These large naval appropriations furnish very good jobs for the young men who graduate at Annapolis; and glory for the Secretary of the Navy, who is usually anxious to magnify himself and his office. So the money of the people is spent for a costly vessel that will usually stand the strain of one peaceful cruise at sea, providing there are no storms, and then go to the dry dock for repairs. These appropriations are not only useless, but positively harmful, for they at once alarm our European friends, and incite them to a greater increase of their military and naval appropriations."

"We have ten statues to the soldier where we have one to the philanthropist."

"A recital of their wars constitutes the largest portion of the history of Christian nations; while the strides that they have made in commerce, in manufactures, and the arts, constitute the least."

"Our own civil war cost our nation one million men and three billion dollars, besides the waste of valuable records and countless treasure, and $145,000,000 yearly in pensions. It laid the foundation of the countless financial disasters of 1895, and created sectional prejudices and hatreds that will not entirely die out during the next fifty years."

"The love of home and country are undoubtedly meritorious attributes, and self-sacrifice for country has always been held in high esteem, but it is but another form of self-love, and it is quite possible to make this love not only excessive, but unjust. There is another and a higher love-the great love of humanity, of peace, of justice and equality-that should be taught to our youth as well. To die for one's country has been usually considered"

"Peace is a matter of education more largely than of legislation; although the latter is necessary."

"It’s fair to say that if news sites were people, most would be diagnosed as clinically depressed right now."

"It is doubtful if a candid person, entirely unacquainted with the facts, who should read English history with an account of the seven years' war of the Revolution, and then read our American history of the same events, could believe that they related to the same events. The same may be said in reference to the historians of the Franco-German war or of our war of the Rebellion."

"Shall we not then have women school trustees and superintendents? Already they are appointed in the East and in the West, and women are permitted to vote at the school elections. Who has a deeper interest in the schools than the mothers?"

"Your favor containing the question, as to whether I consider myself a "new woman" is before me. As a rule I do not consider myself at all. I am, and always have been a progressive woman, and while never directly attacking the conventionalities of society, have always done, or attempted to do those things which I have considered conducive to my health, convenience or emolument, as for instance: Attended college and graduated when the general sentiment of the people was against it, and this after I had been a married woman. Entered a law school and graduated, at a time when there was much opposition to such. Applied for, and was admitted ultimately to the United States Supreme Court. Such a course had been previously unknown in our history. I was the first woman to ride a wheel in the District of Columbia, which I persisted in doing notwithstanding newspaper comments. I accepted a nomination to the Presidency by the Equal Rights Party, and my letter of acceptance was published throughout the length and breadth of 2 worlds. I do not believe in sex distinction in literature, law, politics, or trade; or that modesty and virtue are more becoming to women than to men; but wish we had more of it everywhere. I was new about 60 years ago, but did not then appreciate my privileges. Yours truly, Belva A. Lockwood."

"The United States can afford to be generous and progressive along the line of peace legislation, even to taking the initiative in a permanent Treaty of Arbitration with a country as highly cultured as Great Britain, for the peace spirit is the cultured one, and the war spirit the savage side of human nature; other nationalities would be sure to follow. This would be the dawning of a new day, an epoch in history ever to be remembered. The present industrial condition of the country, the struggle of labor against the greed of monopolies, of trusts, of vast aggregations of capital, is a far greater menace to the security and prosperity of the State than any foreign foe possibly can be."

"No thoughtful person, no humane person, believes in war, which destroys everything and creates nothing but hatred. We believe and teach peace and arbitration in the home, in the church, in society, in the State, and between nations. We believe in the sanctity of human life, the inalienable rights of individuals, in justice, in equality and fraternity. Our Government has already settled many serious difficulties with the various nations of the world by arbitration and by treaty, without resort to war and without bloodshed, and the expense of all of them combined has not been one-tenth that of the War of the Revolution."

"The Red Cross follows after the army, binds up the wounds made by the sabre and the bullet, closes the eyes of the dying, and sends the parting message to the widow and mother; but the Peace Movement, with a broader charity, seeks to abolish guns and bayonets and to settle all difficulties by arbitration, or by judicial methods."

"Women have nothing to gain by war, and the laboring man only a soldier's grave, or wasted health, with his sacrifices speedily forgotten or ignored by the Government and the masses."

"The great war of to-day is a war for bread and butter"

"Organization is the hope of the world, and woman the elastic cement that is binding organizations together, and by them and through them we hope soon to hold the banner aloft to the nations of the world, proclaiming the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man."

"The truth is, medical doctors are more likely to commit suicide than any other professional group. But facing this fact remains largely taboo. Fear of stigma is one reason broken healers often hide or self-treat their pain (with substances legal and not). Fear of repercussion from hospitals and licensing boards is another. Why certain physicians kill themselves is harder to parse. Are they melancholy from the get-go — or does work push them over the edge? Although research suggests that many doctors are emotionally muted, experts also believe they start life with no greater risk of depression than anyone else. Yet once a day, on average, an American physician takes his or her life."

"Dengue incidence has increased thirty-fold over the last fifty years. Fifty percent of the world's population is theoretically at risk."

"For those who wish to write, the craft of writing is a life-long journey."

"ONCE A MONTH, I open e-mail with an extra rush on anticipation. It’s usually the day after my column, “The Doctor Files,” runs in the Health Section of the Los Angeles Times. Because the column shares true stories as well as the emotional side of doctoring, it invariably touches someone. Sometimes I receive as many as 20 responses—positive and negative. I might go through a dozen drafts to produce my final 800-word version, but I consider the time well spent. Revealing medicine’s humanity and inner workings to readers has become, in a way, my personal crusade. I’m an infectious diseases and tropical medicine specialist. Since 1987, I’ve also been a broadcast journalist, a lay lecturer, a magazine writer, and a columnist. I didn’t set out to combine medicine and communications. In fact, 17 years ago, as a rookie ID attending, the possibility of someday linking two careers never crossed my mind. ... If you want to tool up, fine; there are many avenues to learning the crafts of print and broadcast journalism, even acting classes and Toastmasters to aid effective public speaking. But the foremost key is discovering your own message and passion, whether it be antibiotic use and abuse, food and water safety, or vaccination. Most importantly, never underestimate the power of a human story, simply and honestly told. And in infectious diseases, do we have stories."

"Let's start thinking in terms of feeding ourselves instead of feeding the grocery stores. Cooperatives are certainly a big answer for the people. Let's go back to being more self-sufficient. Why do we have to support Mr. Safeway, whoever or wherever he may be?"

"Today, Los Alamos and newspapers like The New Mexican are celebrating August 6. They call it The 25th Anniversary of the Atomic City, or the birth of The Atomic Age, but those are just fine words for a Day of Murder-for the single most horrible slaughter in human history. We cannot celebrate Murder with them. We will celebrate instead the awakening of ourselves and all the Sleeping Giants, rising up everywhere in the world to cry BASTA YA. Let the Manufacturers of Death celebrate the birth of their Atomic Age. We will celebrate the dawn of the People's Age. Power, at last, to the People! (1970)"

"Enriqueta Vasquez's column "Despierten! Hermanos" became known for its eloquent efforts to combat sexism within the movimiento while also working for an anti-colonial liberation to benefit all Raza."

"When we speak of Gringo, we do not particularly hate all white people, but we refer to their social system as ‘Gringo.’ That is what we don’t like."

"I certainly embrace socialism. I can’t see any other solutions. This country (the United States) could feed the world if it wanted to."

"How can one guarantee complete non-violence when one lives in a completely VIOLENT country?"

"I didn’t want my kids to go through what I went through."

"I learned to listen, not only to words, but to the hearts of people; thus capturing the passion, anger, outrage, and indignation when discussing racism, greed, repression and exploitation. These sentiments became an eruption of hundreds of years of repressed thought now set free."

"I am but one of many who walked this path of change: it took a movement to change what this place called North Amerika had become."

"As I look back I remember, To think that at one time even my mother accused me of being a communist and threatened to report me to the government as such. I always respected her and had never answered her, but this time I answered: Go ahead, I will call the FBI for you and you can turn me in. Who do you think I learned to be a revolutionary from? Remember when you would say: 'Si yo supiera hablar inglés, ¿ya me hubieran echado a la prisión?' Pues yo sí sé inglés, y ahora, justed me acusa de ser comunista? Ándele, entrégueme.Her little eyes blinked and after a long silence we both laughed, hugged and cried as she said, Hija de tu nana, me ganaste. I thought, Of course, I won, what do you expect from the daughter of the Mexican Revolution? Later, in 1968, I brought her to visit me in New Mexico and took her to hear Reies Tijerina when he spoke at Española High School. I will never forget the incredible look that came over her face as she drank up every word. After he finished, my mother walked right over to Reies, talked to him and hugged him, tearfully saying, Nunca crei que oyera en este país las palabras y verdades que ha dicho usted. After we left, I smilingly hugged her and reminded her that now, she too was a communist. ¡VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN, SIEMPRE!"

"A woman who has no way of expressing herself and realizing herself as a full human has nothing else to turn to but the owning of material things."

"Then you will find the Chicana with a husband who was not able to fare so very well in the Society and perhaps has had to face defeat. She is the woman that really suffers. Quite often the man will not fight the real source of his problems, be it discrimination or whatever, but will instead come home and take it out on his family. As this continues, his Chicana becomes the victim of his machismo and woeful are the trials and tribulations of that household."

"Child care is one of the most difficult problems for a woman to have to face alone. Not only is she tormented with having to leave the raising of her children to someone else, but she wants the best of care for them. For the amount of money that she may be able to pay from her meager wages, it is likely that she will be lucky to find anyone at all to take care of the children."

"And now, today, as we hear the call of the Raza, and as the dormant, "docile" Mexican American comes to life, we see the stirring of the people. With that call, the Chicana also stirs and I am sure that she will leave her mark upon the Mexican-American movement in the Southwest"

"We want an abundant society with a different kind of man, the Cubans said. In other words, people will not work for money-they will not have to sell their hard work to somebody else. They will work for the good of the land, for the good of all the people. (1969, about Cuba)"

"There are not a few people with too much and others with too little; instead, everyone has enough. (1969, about Cuba)"

"That we have scholars and Chicana PHDers of this caliber teaching in our educational institutions fulfills a vision of what we hoped would come out of the Chicano Movement. Even more extraordinary is the fact that most scholars do not forget “la causa Chicana,” thus watering the raices of the ancient past and living Chicano epic."

"To find a job, a single mother will be faced with working very hard during the day and coming home and again having to work at home."

"And what about César Chávez in California? What's the history of the campesino and what is he fighting for? These are our people too. And in Texas our brothers and sisters have a struggle. Just what is this all about? What is happening to our people? We feel what is happening, let's learn about it and let's start speaking up. Let's talk to each other and let's not be afraid to be heard. (1969)"

"In exchange for hard work the people have freedom. Not only freedom from want but freedom to develop themselves as individuals. They have shelter, no mortgages, sufficient food for survival and sufficient clothing. There are few cars, as this is really a luxury item, and what cars there are, are for the use of the people. There are many buses. These buses are all made in France or England. In Havana, transportation is only 5 cents. If you have it, you pay it consciously, if not you can ride anyway. I used to watch the people get on and everyone seemed to pay. Public telephones are free. Medical care is completely free to everyone. Even sports events are free. (1969, about Cuba)"

"I had heard that the revolution lives everyday and that it must continue to change and live everyday if it is to be truly of and for the people. (1969, about Cuba)"

"I believe that one of the big problems we will find is the racism in education. We know that in school they are not given a culture that they can identify with. They are not taught who they are. Our way of thinking and our human values: as a matter of fact, discouraged. Our own children are wandering away from Raza culture and this is mostly because they have been educated to feel inferior. Our own history books in the schools tend to wipe us out as a people. Our children don't know themselves. It is our obligation and responsibility to show them who and what they really are. We must realize that when educators speak of equality, it is in law and in writing but not in practice. And worse yet, what is being taught to our children is that the Americano as well as their history is superior and infallible. This is totally inhuman, and if you really want to see what this attitude does to people, just go to a foreign country and see the behavior of the American wherever he goes. And listen to what people from other countries feel about the Gringo. (1969)"

"El Grito Del Norte, a Chicano newspaper based in Espanola, New Mexico, was born from the revolutionary flames that engulfed the Southwest in the late 1960s and the early 1970s."

"The new man is a person of the future. The idea of the new man (and new woman) is the realization that human beings have no limit for development. They have great capacity. They can be unselfish, and without envidia. They can all work together for the common good. They can be freed from the pressure of getting money, and become real humans instead of work-machines. (1969, about Cuba)"