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Emily James Putnam: In contemporary society...

Emily James Putnam: In contemporary society...

In contemporary society [the typical lady] is an archaism, and can't hardly understand herself unless she knows her...

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Annie Dillard: There is no...

Annie Dillard: There is no...

There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by.

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Annie Dillard: Just once I...

Annie Dillard: Just once I...

Just once I wanted a task that required all the joy I had. Day after day I had noticed that if I waited long enough,...

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Annie Dillard: The body of...

Annie Dillard: The body of...

The body of literature, with its limits and edges, exists outside some people and inside others. Only after the writer...

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Erica Jong: There is nothing...

Erica Jong: There is nothing...

There is nothing fiercer than a failed artist. The energy remains, but, having no outlet, it implodes in a great...

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Ellen Glasgow: To teach one's...

Ellen Glasgow: To teach one's...

To teach one's self is to be forced to learn twice.

Source: The Woman Within,...

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Ellen Glasgow: I suppose I...

Ellen Glasgow: I suppose I...

I suppose I am a born novelist, for the things that I imagine are more vital and vivid to me than the things I...

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Annie Dillard: I startled a...

Annie Dillard: I startled a...

I startled a weasel who startled me, and we exchanged a long glance. . . . Our eyes locked, and someone threw away the...

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Ellen Glasgow: No idea is...

Ellen Glasgow: No idea is...

No idea is so antiquated that it was not once modern. No idea is so modern that it will not someday be...

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Marguerite Duras: A journalist is...

Marguerite Duras: A journalist is...

A journalist is someone who looks at the world and the way it works, someone who takes a close look at things every...

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Marguerite Duras: Paradoxically, the freedom...

Marguerite Duras: Paradoxically, the freedom...

Paradoxically, the freedom of Paris is associated with a persistent belief that nothing ever changes. Paris, they say,...

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Margaret Atwood: The Eskimo has...

Margaret Atwood: The Eskimo has...

The Eskimo has fifty-two names for snow because it is important to them; there ought to be as many for...

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Djuna Barnes: To love without...

Djuna Barnes: To love without...

To love without criticism is to be betrayed.

Source: Nightwood, 1937.
-- Djuna...

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Cynthia Ozick: In saying what...

Cynthia Ozick: In saying what...

In saying what is obvious, never choose cunning. Yelling works better.

Source: We...

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Angela Carter: Fine art, that...

Angela Carter: Fine art, that...

Fine art, that exists for itself alone, is art in a final state of impotence. If nobody, including the artist,...

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Jean Stafford: A small silence...

Jean Stafford: A small silence...

A small silence came between us, as precise as a picture hanging on the wall.

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Toni Cade Bambara: Our lives preserved....

Toni Cade Bambara: Our lives preserved....

Our lives preserved. How it was; and how it be. Passing it along in the relay. That is what I work to do: to produce...

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Toni Cade Bambara: My mother, religious-negro,...

Toni Cade Bambara: My mother, religious-negro,...

My mother, religious-negro, proud of having waded through a storm, is, very obviously a sturdy bridge that I have...

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Elizabeth Stuart Phelps: Who originated that...

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps: Who originated that...

Who originated that most exquisite of inquisitions, the condolence system?

Source:...

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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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