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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!


Emily Bronte: Any relic of...

Emily Bronte: Any relic of...

Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living.

Source: Ellen Dean,...

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Jean Rhys: The feeling of...

Jean Rhys: The feeling of...

The feeling of Sunday is the same everywhere, heavy, melancholy, standing still. Like when they say, As it was in...

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Shirley Jackson: It has long...

Shirley Jackson: It has long...

It has long been my belief that in times of great stress, such as a 4-day vacation, the thin veneer of family wears...

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Agatha Christie: It is ridiculous...

Agatha Christie: It is ridiculous...

It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City -- New York City is itself a detective...

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Katherine Paterson: A great novel...

Katherine Paterson: A great novel...

A great novel is a kind of conversion experience. We come away from it changed.

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Elizabeth Blackwell: It is not...

Elizabeth Blackwell: It is not...

It is not easy to be a pioneer -- but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for...

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Elizabeth Dole: What you always...

Elizabeth Dole: What you always...

What you always do before you make a decision is consult. The best public policy is made when you are listening to...

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June Singer: Despite the continuing...

June Singer: Despite the continuing...

Despite the continuing expansion or even explosion of information, there will forever be limits beyond which the...

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Djuna Barnes: What is a...

Djuna Barnes: What is a...

What is a ruin but time easing itself of endurance?

Source: Selected Works of Djuna...

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Cynthia Ozick: The engineering is...

Cynthia Ozick: The engineering is...

The engineering is secondary to the vision.

Source: In The Speaker's Electronic...

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Gertrude Stein: Everybody knows if...

Gertrude Stein: Everybody knows if...

Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over...

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Iris Murdoch: A bad review...

Iris Murdoch: A bad review...

A bad review is even less important than whether it is raining in Patagonia.

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Natalia Ginzburg: As soon as...

Natalia Ginzburg: As soon as...

As soon as we see our dreams betrayed we realize that the intensest joys of our life have nothing to do with reality,...

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Maxine Hong Kingston: I learned to...

Maxine Hong Kingston: I learned to...

I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for...

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George Eliot: Our impartiality is...

George Eliot: Our impartiality is...

Our impartiality is kept for abstract merit and demerit, which none of us ever saw.

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Mary McCarthy: I am putting...

Mary McCarthy: I am putting...

I am putting real plums into an imaginary cake.

Source: On The Group,, her 1963...

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Mary McCarthy: I suppose everyone...

Mary McCarthy: I suppose everyone...

I suppose everyone continues to be interested in the quest for the self, but what you feel when you're older, I think,...

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Gloria Naylor: Not only is...

Gloria Naylor: Not only is...

Not only is your story worth telling, but it can be told in words so painstakingly eloquent that it becomes a...

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Enid Bagnold: Judges don't age....

Enid Bagnold: Judges don't age....

Judges don't age. Time decorates them.

Source: Judge, in The Chalk Garden, act...

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Alice James: The success or...

Alice James: The success or...

The success or failure of a life, as far as posterity goes, seems to lie in the more or less luck of seizing the right...

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