Welcome to the Quotable Women Collection

Quotable Women, like BeMoreCreative.com, encourages thinking, working, and living more creatively. Creativity is "the power to connect the seemingly unconnected" (W. Plommer). To support this work, we earn a small affiliate commission. Please browse creatively!


Edna Ferber: Writers should be...

Edna Ferber: Writers should be...

Writers should be read but not seen. Rarely are they a winsome sight.

Source: From...

More about this quote

Willa Cather: I tell you...

Willa Cather: I tell you...

I tell you there is such a thing as creative hate.

Source: The Song of the Lark,...

More about this quote

Elizabeth Gaskell: People may flatter...

Elizabeth Gaskell: People may flatter...

People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people's minds,...

More about this quote

Carson McCullers: Our hunger for...

Carson McCullers: Our hunger for...

Our hunger for foreign places and new ways has been with us [Americans] almost like a national disease. Our literature...

More about this quote

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...

More about this quote

Toni Cade Bambara: [W]riting is a...

Toni Cade Bambara: [W]riting is a...

[W]riting is a legitimate way, an important way, to participate in the empowerment of the community that names...

More about this quote

Harper Lee: You're not gonna...

Harper Lee: You're not gonna...

You're not gonna change any of them by talkin' right, they've got to want to learn themselves, and when they don't...

More about this quote

Margaret Drabble: Why can't people...

Margaret Drabble: Why can't people...

Why can't people be both flexible and efficient?

Source: The Middle Ground,...

More about this quote

Mary McCarthy: Bureacracy, the rule...

Mary McCarthy: Bureacracy, the rule...

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

Source:...

More about this quote

Rose Tremain: Life is not...

Rose Tremain: Life is not...

Life is not a dress rehearsal.

Source: In the Sunday Correspondent (London), 24 Dec...

More about this quote

Alexandra Ripley: Books have become...

Alexandra Ripley: Books have become...

Books have become products like cereal or perfume or deodorant.

Source: In...

More about this quote

Alexandra Ripley: We're not home-and-hearth...

Alexandra Ripley: We're not home-and-hearth...

We're not home-and-hearth people. We're the adventurers, the buccaneers, the blockade runners. Without challenge,...

More about this quote

Taylor Caldwell: He that hath...

Taylor Caldwell: He that hath...

He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without...

More about this quote

Jean Ingelow: Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!'...

Jean Ingelow: Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!'...

Cusha! Cusha! Cusha!' calling
Ere the early dews were falling.


Source: The High...

More about this quote

Jean Ingelow: It is not...

Jean Ingelow: It is not...

It is not reason which makes faith hard, but life.

Source: In Webster's Electronic...

More about this quote

Madeleine L'Engle: Artistic temperament ....

Madeleine L'Engle: Artistic temperament ....

Artistic temperament . . . sometimes seems a battleground, a dark angel of destruction and a bright angel of...

More about this quote

Madeleine L'Engle: No matter how...

Madeleine L'Engle: No matter how...

No matter how true I believe I am writing to be, if the reader cannot also participate in that truth, then I have...

More about this quote

Maya Angelou: Each of us...

Maya Angelou: Each of us...

Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead and . . . if the future road looms...

More about this quote

Mary Pettibone Poole: Culture is what...

Mary Pettibone Poole: Culture is what...

Culture is what your butcher would have if he were a surgeon.

Source: A Glass Eye...

More about this quote

Barbara Sher: When you play...

Barbara Sher: When you play...

When you play it too safe, you're taking the biggest risk of your life. Time is the only wealth we're...

More about this quote

Page 178 of 329


(C)2026 Quotable Women - All Rights Reserved.

Quotable Women
Harrisonburg, VA