Women Born In The 1940s

"For my generation and for the generations that came after, Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara preside over an irreversible constellation of heroes and, for that reason, have become integrated into the most beautiful popular imagination on the planet."

"The working class districts of Havana shaped my outlook"

"For me, writing a poem means enormous enjoyment that reaches its culmination when the poem appears in print."

"The purpose of any piece of writing is its existence before a reader’s eyes."

"one of its [society's] most sinister creatures: the practice of racial discrimination, a lever that always heightens racial prejudice. Both creatures make up racism."

"For my family it [the revolution] meant achieving a real, tangible position in the social and political life of Cuba, which Fidel’s bearded revolutionaries [los barbudos] made possible. Those transformations opened the doors of the university to me, something that would have been impossible, given the slender means of my parents."

"Very often people abroad see us talking about our free education as some sort of empty political slogan but in fact it is a reality and a priority."

"The revolution opened doors for us and allowed an enormous social mobility. Many walls that blocked communication were demolished, and taboos were cast out."

"We also need to see black characters somewhere other than in films about slavery. We badly need something more contemporary and more pertinent."

"I think what we said from the outset was, you know, this was fixing a very broken market– where individuals really were on their own,” she said. “If you were healthy and wealthy, you could get coverage. If you weren’t, you were pretty much on your own”"

"Could we have used more time and testing? You bet. I’ve said that from the start,” “But the site actually works. And the great thing is, there’s a market behind the site that works even better. People have competitive choices and real information for the first time ever in this insurance market.”"

"That relentless battle is still underway,” Sebelius said. “The march toward universal coverage, as slow, difficult, and painful as it is, will continue in the United States of America, and I’m just delighted I had a small part in that wonderful march toward equity.”"

"“This was not a one-shot deal,” Sebelius said. “This was really a systematic march.”"

"A fruitful area of inquiry for researchers would be to measure whether public opinion favors incremental health care fixes or sweeping reform. Radical change would be counterproductive were it to a spark a backlash with the potential to undo hard-won gains,"

"“We’re still a way from universal coverage, we’re still a way from affordable care for everyone,”"

"thumb|Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services“I find it so toxic and so difficult,” she said. “When I was running in Kansas, Kansas really had two Republican parties. A much more conservative antigovernment party and a more moderate branch of the party. The two branches fought with one another more than they fought with Democrats.”"

"Success in politics had much to do with timing, and she wasn’t convinced it would be possible for her to win in the current electoral climate."

"“Being governor, I believe, is the best job in America, because you can do things,”"

"That sent a very powerful message,”"

"“My father went into politics when I was 5 years old,” Sebelius said. “I did think that’s what families did in the fall — go door to door and put up yard signs. I didn’t know it was a volunteer activity. In our family, it was mandatory service.”"

"“Probably the most interesting, challenging and unlikely race I ran was for insurance commissioner,” Sebelius said. “The most terrifying thing was that I won and had to figure out what to do.”"

"“Women candidates were certainly running for statewide office in various places, but it was a tricky balance,” she said. “You couldn’t be too tough or people hated you. You couldn’t be too weak or people thought you couldn’t do the job. You were a witch or a bitch. It was a very complicated role to play.”"

"“I remember the advertising guy said, ‘You need a killer ad, but you can’t be seen as a killer,’"

"Morejón has been recognized as one of the most celebrated and revered writers and intellectuals of the Cuban revolutionary period and one of the most important Caribbean women writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries...Her experiences and her fluency in the languages of the region have endowed her with a profound and rich voice that has helped shape our understanding of the Caribbean as a field of study."

"Perhaps Nancy Morejón’s most precious gift to both readers and listeners is her complex portrait of empowered black women."

"My country will remain there where it is, washed by the Gulf Stream, the Caribbean Sea and by that desire to exist and remain and last with its windows open to the purest elements in human civilization without renouncing social justice. I would earnestly hope that there is a greater understanding between our cultures, in favor of civilization, against war, against terrorism, against every regressive atavism. Art is the magic that will take us by the hand along the most beautiful of paths."

"In Cuba we must respect all those writers who have maintained their space and their dignity beyond the question of making a hit at book fairs or in the commercial world. I respect all of them even if all of them are not to my taste or don’t make me happy."

"All well-meaning Ghanaians to support the cause, to stand firm and join in the struggle to increase women’s participation in decision making."

"Our laws will have to be amended. At the moment the laws are so liberal. The idea was to attract investment but we are willing to take a look at our laws again. The mining industry must move from being an enclosure to being fully integrated into the Ghanaian local economy. Tax revenues are minimal. The nation does not hardly benefit from high mineral prices."

"Decisions on our economy, environment and society cannot only be based simply on current or recent data, temporal analysis is required to identify trends, evaluate impacts and make informed decisions for democratic governance."

"I am not ready to discuss what accounted for my loss...I cannot say I lost because the winner doled out money to delegates to vote for him."

"What cost us dearly is the affirmative action policy that became controversial. In my case for instance, my opponent told the delegates that I was the originator of the affirmative action policy and also the one who signed it because I am the NPP Women Caucus leader so when that law is made to stand, the Abirem seat will be a no go area for any man. Most of the delegates are men and such pronouncement scared them. So, that is one of the major reasons why I lost the primaries."

"To speak of Judaism in such global terms as the "Jewish tradition" as belonging solely to the Ashkenazic or the Sephardic is absurd. That which is Jewish does not rest on blood or race, nor does it rest on uniformity of origin, nor even less on rigidity of thought and action. If we speak of philosophy, then the Sephardic tradition is the weightier; if we speak of a certain mysticism or of the resurgence of literary themes, then the Ashkenazi tradition is closer to our own times. But where fidelity to Torah or the oral tradition is concerned, both visions, and within both these visions, the multiplicity of their views, form the continuous circle that has maintained living Judaism to this day. Neither Ashkenazim nor Sephardim have the exclusive privilege of having preserved Judaism. It is the good fortune of Judaism that opposition and contradiction are its germinative elements. Ought we then to continue to foment in our children an antagonism which is not only anachronistic but-considering the narrow dwelling-ground-effectively disperses our communal identity for others as well as for Jews themselves, with respect to our continuing desire to be a source of living waters."

"He carries islands of peace in his hands; she, a burning river-bed of windmills and storms."

"To the brink of what edges does a kiss lead?"

"She was always a child who anticipated things, believed in words yet to be spoken, in days that open to a recent now, in fairy tales. Sometimes she awoke with woodsy breezes in her hair and the amazement of finding herself a stranger to this time and world. What early banishment snatched the taste of immensity from her mouth? In her he recognized a perfume, a tenacious expectancy, perhaps the name of an unexpressed desire. In him she recognized a dream, a search, a brightness that awaits a powerful and inextinguishable irradiation."

""Better to have scars than incurable wounds," Grandfather would say"

"To follow one's own path means the rejection of those chosen by others, he knows it, and will remain alone, against wind and tide, tremulous warrior who brandishes his sword in the air to test its weight and mettle."

"The afternoon bubbles, and flows stealthily towards the lap of night. A lukewarm sky envelops the city, like a caress on a check, a pleasure of solitude that relieves eyes and ears."

"His foot wounded, once again, on the sole, right where he was beginning to step with joy"

"Finally we reached Memphis. We got there at a bad time. Traffic was heavy and we got separated from the rest of the family. We tried to find them but it was no use. W had to go on alone. We reached the Mississippi state line and soon after we heard a police siren. A police car came up behind us. My father slowed the Cadillac, then stopped. Two white policemen got out of their car. They eyeballed the Cadillac and told my father to get out. "Whose car is this, boy?" they asked. I saw anger in my father's eyes. "It's mine," he said. "You're a liar," said one of the polciemen. "You stole this car.""

"Still though, I often thought of that Cadillac. We had had the Cadillac for only a little more than a month, but I wouldn't soon forget its splendor or how I'd felt riding around inside it. I wouldn't soon forget either the ride we had taken south in it. I would remember that ride and the gold Cadillac all my life."

"We rolled on, down Highway 25 and through the bluegrass hills of Kentucky. Soon we began to see signs. Signs that read: WHITE ONLY, COLORED NOT ALLOWED. Hours later, we left the Bluegrass State and crossed into Tennessee. Now we saw even more of the signs saying WHITE ONLY, COLORED NOT ALLOWED. We saw the signs above water fountains and in restaurant windows. We saw them in ice cream parlors and at hamburger stands. We saw them in front of hotels and motels, and on the restroom doors of filling stations. I didn't like the signs. I felt as if we were in a foreign land."

"You cannot put out a fire with petrol."

"We prefer to cling to bitterness, but bitterness is corrosive. Like a container filled with salt, it will destroy everything because the Lord cannot forgive us if we cannot forgive others. Life is wonderful if we let God heal us."

"Bullets have no eyes. In the field, bullets would not know if a child was abducted or volunteered for the rebel army. War would destroy all these children."

"Unless the parents practiced forgiveness and sought a peaceful solution to the conflict, they would destroy what they most wanted back."

"As a mother, it is not easy to wait for a missing child to return -- it is very hard."

"If you are given a role to play, think of what you will be portraying to the public and the impression people will have about you as a person because not everybody will know that what you play is not who or what you are."

"If you want to make a name for yourself, make a good name."