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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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Djuna Barnes: We are beginning...

Djuna Barnes: We are beginning...

We are beginning to wonder whether a servant girl hasn't the best of it after all. She knows how the salad tastes...

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Willa Cather: Art should simplify....

Willa Cather: Art should simplify....

Art should simplify. That is very nearly the whole of the higher artistic process; finding what conventions of form...

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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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Gail Godwin: Good teaching is...

Gail Godwin: Good teaching is...

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.

Source: The Odd...

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Anne Sophie Swetchine: Travel is the...

Anne Sophie Swetchine: Travel is the...

Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones.

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Michelle Obama: It was one...

Michelle Obama: It was one...

It was one thing to get yourself out of a stuck place, I realized. It was another thing entirely to try and get the...

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Ninon de Lenclos: A man is...

Ninon de Lenclos: A man is...

A man is given the choice between loving women and understanding them.

Source: In...

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Estelle Ramey: . ....

Estelle Ramey: . ....

. . . what is human and the same about the males and females classified as Homo sapiens is much greater than the...

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Elizabeth Bowen: I suppose art...

Elizabeth Bowen: I suppose art...

I suppose art is the only thing that can go on mattering once it has stopped hurting.

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Annie Dillard: I woke at...

Annie Dillard: I woke at...

I woke at intervals until . . . the intervals of waking tipped the scales, and I was more often awake than...

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Gertrude Stein: Oh, I wish...

Gertrude Stein: Oh, I wish...

Oh, I wish I were a miser; being a miser must be so occupying.

Source: Quoted by...

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Natalie Clifford Barney: Time engraves our...

Natalie Clifford Barney: Time engraves our...

Time engraves our faces with all the tears we have not shed.

Source: Quoted in:...

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Nora Ephron: I am continually...

Nora Ephron: I am continually...

I am continually fascinated at the difficulty intelligent people have in distinguishing what is controversial from...

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Kate Seredy: The past lived...

Kate Seredy: The past lived...

The past lived in songs, the present in their flashing swords,and the future in their...

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Jane Austen: Where an opinion...

Jane Austen: Where an opinion...

Where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.

Source: Mary Crawford, in...

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Annie Dillard: You can't test...

Annie Dillard: You can't test...

You can't test courage cautiously.

Source: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, ch. 6,...

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Colette: It is wise...

Colette: It is wise...

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanism of friendship.

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Maxine Hong Kingston: To me success...

Maxine Hong Kingston: To me success...

To me success means effectiveness in the world, that I am able to carry my ideas and values into the world -- that I...

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Lydia M Child: Every human being...

Lydia M Child: Every human being...

Every human being has, like Socrates, an attendant spirit; and wise are they who obey its signals. If it does not...

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