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Djuna Barnes: Life is painful,...

Djuna Barnes: Life is painful,...

Life is painful, nasty and short . . . in my case it has only been painful and nasty.

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Janet Frame: [V]ery often the...

Janet Frame: [V]ery often the...

[V]ery often the law of extremity demands an attention to irrelevance. . . .

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Ursula Le Guin: I doubt that...

Ursula Le Guin: I doubt that...

I doubt that the imagination can be suppressed. If you truly eradicated it in a child, he would grow up to be an...

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Jessamyn West: A taste for...

Jessamyn West: A taste for...

A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense of humor for it takes irony to appreciate the joke...

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Margaret Halsey: Some persons talk...

Margaret Halsey: Some persons talk...

Some persons talk simply because they think sound is more manageable than silence.

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Mary Webb: The more anybody...

Mary Webb: The more anybody...

The more anybody wants a thing, the more they do think others want it.

Source:...

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Mary McCarthy: Bureacracy, the rule...

Mary McCarthy: Bureacracy, the rule...

Bureacracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism.

Source:...

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Helene Deutsch: Their capacity for...

Helene Deutsch: Their capacity for...

Their capacity for identification is not an expression of inner poverty but of inner...

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Barbara De Angelis: You don't develop...

Barbara De Angelis: You don't develop...

You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times...

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Francoise d'Aubigne de Maintenon: There is an...

Francoise d'Aubigne de Maintenon: There is an...

There is an important difference between love and friendship. While the former delights in extremes and opposites, the...

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Elizabeth Bowen: One can live...

Elizabeth Bowen: One can live...

One can live in the shadow of an idea without grasping it.

Source: The Heat of the...

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Anais Nin: The shell is...

Anais Nin: The shell is...

The shell is America's most active contribution to the formation of character. A tough hide. Grow it...

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Alice Walker: God is inside...

Alice Walker: God is inside...

God is inside you and inside everybody else. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just...

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Carolyn Wells: A blunder at...

Carolyn Wells: A blunder at...

A blunder at the right moment is better than cleverness at the wrong time.

Source:...

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Barbara De Angelis: A man's brain...

Barbara De Angelis: A man's brain...

A man's brain has a more difficult time shifting from thinking to feeling than a women's brain...

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George Sand: Simplicity is the...

George Sand: Simplicity is the...

Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience and the last effort...

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Natalia Ginzburg: Children should be...

Natalia Ginzburg: Children should be...

Children should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to...

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Djuna Barnes: I'm a fart...

Djuna Barnes: I'm a fart...

I'm a fart in a gale of wind, a humble violet, under a cow pat.

Source: Doctor, in...

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Willa Cather: A child's attitude...

Willa Cather: A child's attitude...

A child's attitude toward everything is an artist's attitude.

Source: The Song of...

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Anne Tyler: II would advise...

Anne Tyler: II would advise...

II would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them -- without a...

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