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Jane Rule: I had never...

Jane Rule: I had never...

I had never been as resigned to ready-made ideas as I was to ready-made clothes, perhaps because although I couldn't...

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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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Enid Bagnold: The theatre is...

Enid Bagnold: The theatre is...

The theatre is a gross art, built in sweeps and over-emphasis. Compromise is its second...

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Rose Tremain: Life should be...

Rose Tremain: Life should be...

Life should be embraced like a lover.

Source: In ...As One Mad With Wine, by Elyse...

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Joyce Carol Oates: We inhabit ourselves...

Joyce Carol Oates: We inhabit ourselves...

We inhabit ourselves without valuing ourselves, unable to see that here, now, this very moment is sacred; but once...

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Djuna Barnes: Dreams have only...

Djuna Barnes: Dreams have only...

Dreams have only the pigmentation of fact.

Source: Doctor, in Nightwood, ch. 5,...

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Edith Wharton: Another unsettling element...

Edith Wharton: Another unsettling element...

Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done...

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Gail Godwin: Some things arrive...

Gail Godwin: Some things arrive...

Some things arrive in their own mysterious hour, on their own terms and not yours, to be seized or relinquished...

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Kathleen Norris: Just the knowledge...

Kathleen Norris: Just the knowledge...

Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day...

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Alexandra Ripley: Should-haves solve nothing....

Alexandra Ripley: Should-haves solve nothing....

Should-haves solve nothing. It's the next thing to happen that needs thinking about.

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Fay Weldon: The desire for...

Fay Weldon: The desire for...

The desire for self-expression afflicts people when they feel there is something of themselves which is not getting...

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Anzia Yezierska: The real thing...

Anzia Yezierska: The real thing...

The real thing creates its own poetry.

Source: Red Ribbon on a White Horse,...

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Daphne DuMaurier: She could not...

Daphne DuMaurier: She could not...

She could not separate success from peace of mind. The two must go together.

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Shirley Hazzard: It's a nervous...

Shirley Hazzard: It's a nervous...

It's a nervous work. The state that you need to write is the state that others are paying large sums to get rid...

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Edna St Vincent Millay: God, I can...

Edna St Vincent Millay: God, I can...

God, I can push the grass apart
And lay my finger on Thy heart!


Source: In The...

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Dodie Smith: I have found...

Dodie Smith: I have found...

I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring.

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Terry McMillan: I don't trust...

Terry McMillan: I don't trust...

I don't trust white critics' judgment about most things that deal with black life, particularly when a black person is...

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Denise Levertov: Every day, every...

Denise Levertov: Every day, every...

Every day, every day I hear
enough to fill
a year of nights with wondering.


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Elizabeth Bishop: All my life...

Elizabeth Bishop: All my life...

All my life I have lived and behaved very much like [the] sandpiper -- just running down the edges of different...

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Mary Pickford: It would have...

Mary Pickford: It would have...

It would have been more logical if silent pictures had grown out of the talkies instead of the other way...

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