Kendzior, Sarah

This is the thing about creativity that’s rarely acknowledged: most people don’t actually like it… They crave the success of the result, but shun the process that produces it. The experimentation that may yield failure. The rejection of social norms that leads to rejection of the artist herself.

Security takes many forms. There is the security of knowing one has a statistically smaller chance of getting shot with an arrow. And then there is the security of knowing there are people in the world who will care deeply if one is.

Mitchell, Claire & Venditozzi, Zoe

Dubb, Sarah

You still deserved better, honey. He was doing his best, and you still deserved better.

Kendzior, Sarah

To warn of a threat and be dismissed is to have your own worth questioned, along with the worth of all you strive to keep safe.

Bishop, Kelly

You know those rare people you’re introduced to for the first time, and instead of saying “Nice to meet you” you’re tempted to say “There you are!” — The Third Gilmore Girl: Kelly Bishop

Wood Jr., Roy

We are a country founded on religious principles of forgiveness and turning the other cheek, yet every piece of infrastructure is set up to remind you of and hold you accountable for your past mistakes.

Hatmaker, Jen

I have barely even kissed a boy. I feel wildly embarrassed but can’t figure out why. All of a sudden, I am hyperaware of my body and burning with shame; did that first kiss with Gary Whipple in seventh grade cost me a petal?

Thompson, Shailee

If watching rom-coms has taught me anything, it’s that you don’t dim yourself for fear of shining too bright... And if watching slashers has taught me anything, it’s that you take chances whenever you can.

Ryan, Kennedy

There are women like me who are mothering in our own ways, but have never carried a child or been a parent. We’re teachers and mentors and social workers and godmothers. We find ways to pour love into the world, to shape the world for good without bearing a child.

Giuffre, Virginia Roberts

Bohannon, Cat

With eusocial species, not every individual has a chance to reproduce, but a caste of asexual members is useful, even essential, to the group’s success, most typically by helping care for the young.

Schwartz, Joanna

Pulley, Natasha

When someone is that calm in a crisis, either they don’t know what’s happening, or you don’t.

Cullins, Ashley

Because you’re not afraid of being alone, right? You’re afraid you’re not alone. If you’re alone, nothing can happen to you. If there is another person who wishes you harm…that’s truly scary, especially when it’s someone you know and trust.

Spade, Dean

Johnson, Eleanor

Spade, Dean

Harris, Kamala

Throughout my career I’ve maintained that people in positions of power must be required to ask of themselves: Who am I not hearing from? Then make it their business to seek those folks out.

Goodall, Jane

Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement.

Chemaly, Soraya

Bamford, Maria

Tang, Karen

Marie, I.V.

Carmichael, Jessica

Tyson, Timothy

I took the privacy of my own grief and turned it into a public issue, a political issue, one which set in motion the dynamic force that ultimately led to a generation of social and legal progress for this country.

Wynn-Williams, Sara

Henry, Emily

King, Steven

Davis, Angela

Lewis, Michael

Raymond, Edwin

El Akkad, Omar

Kimble, Megan

Stanley, Jason

Stanley, Jason

Poston, Ashley

Huang, Ling Ling

Brooks, David

Kelly, Kim

O’Clover, Ellen

Morris, Haley

Higginbotham, Adam

Costello, Jane

Reid, Taylor Jenkins

Harpman, Jacqueline

Ciccarelli, Kristen

Rooney, Sally

Carter Jackson, Kellie

Schwab, V.E.

Khan-Cullors, Patrisse

Blackstock, Uché

And that’s when it hit me. The people in institutional power, mostly older white men, didn’t really expect me to do anything in my new role. They wanted a figurehead; they didn’t expect me to change anything.

Haidt, Jonathan

Smith, Kaylie

He was in the reflection of her hot chocolate at every café. In the heat of every fire. In the faces of the few lovers she’d had since he shattered her heart to pieces.

Paxton, Robert O.

Borison, B.K.

Ephron, Nora

Jimenez, Abby

McQuiston, Casey

Griner, Brittney

Nguyen, Beth

Burke, Tarana

Hendrix, Grady

Thorpe, Rufi

Weaver, Brynne

Kinsella, Sophie

Alexander, Michelle

Coburn, Jennifer

Cullen, Dave

They had looked beyond that powerless afternoon determined they had been made powerless their entire childhood by gunmen who could strike at any moment. They set their sights on that larger problem and reclaimed their power by working to protect 74 million American kids… They didn’t start this as a form of therapy, but Dr. Lye said they could hardly have designed a better treatment plan.

Ford, Christine Blasey

As I budgeted out what we could afford, I thought how impossible this would be for so many other survivors. If you don’t have the resources, how do you even leave an unsafe situation? If I, with all my privileges, could barely afford to speak out, what did that mean for so many other women?

Gunter, Jen

Messenger, Tony

Smale, Holly

Gladwell, Malcolm

Abrams, Stacey

Monaghan, Annabel

Rothstein, Richard

Wynn-Grant, Rae

Montgomery, Sy

If I have a soul—and I think I do—an octopus has a soul, too.

McCammon, Sarah

Todd, Kim

Lenz, Bethany Joy

Pishko, Jessica

Benjamin, Ruha

As just one person, let’s band together with all the other just people who are equally hungry for change.

Carmon, Irin

Center, Katherine

Davis, Angela Y.

Duhigg, Charles

Espach, Alison

Gregory, Amanda Ann

Hendrix, Grady

In every book we read, no one ever thought anything bad was happening until it was too late.

Jackson, Sarah J.

This rapport building between members of the network does important discursive community-building work, shaping cultural solidarity and providing important emotional and psychological support.

Klosterman, Chuck

Moore, EbonyJanice

Napolitano, Ann

She carried a book at all times—to read, yes, but also as a handy shield for when she wanted to deflect the attention of other people.

Roach, Mary

Every now and then in life, a compliment is tucked so seamlessly into a insult that it’s impossible to know how to react.

Ronson, Jon

Rum, Etaf

Maybe her story is in here somewhere. Maybe she will finally find it. She runs her fingers along the hardcover spines, inhales the smell of old paper, searching. But then it hits her, like falling into water. I can tell my own story now, she thinks. And then she does.

Snyder, Rachel Louise

Taylor, Sonya Renee

Williams, Brian H.

Anderson, Gillian

Balko, Radley

Bancroft, Lundy

Brammer, Mikki

It wasn’t that I was opposed to the idea of friendship; it’s just that if you don’t get close to anyone, you can’t lose them. And I’d already lost enough people.

Bregman, Rutger

Bregman, Rutger

Brookshire, Bethany

Cain, Susan

Carder, Meredith

Catmull, Ed

Center, Katherine

Ciccarelli, Kristen

Cohen, Rhaina

Connolly, Lauren

Dubb, Sarah T.

Duckworth, Angela

Dunlap, Tori

As I’ve said a million times and will say again a million times, your self-worth has nothing to do with your net worth. Being in debt doesn’t mean you should live with constant sacrifice, punishment, or misery. Most people take on debt because they need to, and it’s no one’s place to shame you for it.

Durvasula, Ramani

Earley, Pete

And they were saying he was just doing his job maintaining prisoners, as if he were a saint because he put on a badge. It wasn’t like that at all. He got off on making guys’ lives miserable, showing how tough he was.

Edwards, Vanessa Van

Foo, Stephanie

Foster, Diana Greene

French, Nancy

Garmus, Bonnie

Gawande, Atul

Gay, Roxane

Grabar, Henry

Grant, Adam M.

Greenwood, Kirsty

Grey, Emma

Gyasi, Yaa

We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must always ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth?

Habeck, Emily

Hankin, Laura

Hansson, David Heinemeier

Henry, Emily

Henry, Emily

Henry, Emily

hooks, bell

Johnson, Sue

Johnson, Walter

Jones, Amanda

Kantor, Jodi

Keim, Brandon

Kuang, Yulin

Larkin, Allison

LePera, Nicole

Levings, Tia

Lynn, Hannah

But this day, I offered no false comfort. No assurances that soon he would grow tired of his mistresses and return to his wife a changed man. I knew that his nefariousness knew no boundaries and there was no limit to how many people he would hurt. So instead, I held her. Cradled her until she had no more tears to shed.

MacKinnon, J.B.

Maté, Gabor

Melinek, Judy

Melville, Greg

Our cemeteries reveal where our values lie and how we lie about our values.

Menanno, Julie

Montell, Amanda

Morse, Emily

Nagoski, Emily

When we put pleasure at the center of our definition of sexual well-being, sex we don’t like is never even on the table.

Nance, Sarafina El-Badry

Owen, Abigail

Pera, Gina

Prout, Chessy

I was determined to prove to myself and everyone else that I was stronger and wiser because of all this.

Purmort, Nora McInerny

I can never say it, I can barely even think it, but I know that I am crying because I am afraid that when Aaron is gone, there will still be parts of him I do not know, little things like this that he forgot to share with me.

Purnell, Derecka

Radke, Heather

Ross, Rebecca

Ross, Rebecca

Ryan, Hugh

Ryan, Kennedy

Sapolsky, Robert M.

What was an unexpected pleasure yesterday is what we feel entitled to today, and what won’t be enough tomorrow. In other words, the pleasure is in the anticipation of reward, and the reward itself is nearly an afterthought (unless, of course, the reward fails to arrive, in which case it’s the most important thing in the world).

Satow, Julie

Schutt, Bill

Shaw, Julia

Skloot, Rebecca

Smilios, Maria

Smith, Kaylie

Tawwab, Nedra Glover

Tintera, Amy

Wassmer, M.J.

Weir, Andy

That’s the thing about secrets. You can sell them over and over again.

Young, Adrienne

Brennert, Alan

Cargle, Rachel Elizabeth

Derulo, Jason

Frankel, Laurie

Gates, Melinda French

George, Jessica

Gibson, Lindsay C.

You aren’t betraying your parents by seeing them accurately. Thinking about them objectively can’t hurt them. But it can help you.

Harris, Neil Patrick

The profound sadness and immediacy of it all weighs heavily on both of you. But from it emerges a mutual recognition of the importance of doing things and making choices now, as opposed to “someday,” because it is now painfully apparent that “someday” is not guaranteed.

Haynes, Natalie

Jakobson, Haley

Jimenez, Abby

Kuang, R.F.

Marin, Vanessa

Robbins, Alexandra

Rubin, Rick

Ruffin, Amber

Spears, Britney

Thomas, R. Eric

Webber, Andrew Lloyd

Wheeler, Genevieve

Yong, Ed

Yousafzai, Malala

Cain, Susan

Center, Katherine

Chaudry, Rabia

Cochrun, Alison

Davis, Viola

Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne

Ilgner, Arno

Jimenez, Abby

John, Elton

But I’d rather try and build a bridge to someone on the opposite side to me than put up a wall.

Lloyd, Josie

Lux, Claudia

McCurdy, Jennette

Writing is the opposite of performing to me. Performing feels inherently fake. Writing feels inherently real.

Miller, Madeline

Ness, Jonathan Van

Nović, Sara

Obama, Michelle

Oluo, Ijeoma

Perry, Matthew

Pink, Daniel H.

Randis, K.L.

Something like that would never change how I feel about you, because that’s something that happened to you. It’s not who you are.

Redniss, Lauren

Reid, Taylor Jenkins

It’s empowering to be the one holding someone else up. It makes you feel strong, maybe even stronger than you are.

Reid, Taylor Jenkins

Robinson, Phoebe

If someone is going to be racist toward you, BURDEN them.

Ronson, Jon

I have panicked unnecessarily in all four corners of the globe.

Ruffin, Amber

Ryan, Kennedy

Samuels, Robert

Tuttle, Merlin

Eventually, it became clear that I was experienced at dangling from ropes, and Dave reluctantly noted that I’d been warned, and he resigned himself to my being crazy.

Urban, Melissa

Yong, Ed

Zevin, Gabrielle

Allyn, Rachel

From the time that we humans began to sharpen our wits we begin to dull our senses - Christine Caldwell

Atwood, Margaret

Aunt Vidala said that best friends led to whispering and plotting and keeping secrets, and plotting and secrets led to disobedience to God, and disobedience led to rebellion, and girls who were rebellious became women who were rebellious, and a rebellious woman was even worse than a rebellious man because rebellious men became traitors, but rebellious women became adulteresses.

Brunson, Quinta

Cleghorn, Elinor

Doughty, Caitlin

Ford, Ashley C.

Gorman, Amanda

While once we asked, "How could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?" now we assert: “How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?” - The Hill We Climb: Amanda Gorman

Grant, Adam M.

Jenkins, Tiffany

Jewels, Jewels

I have always found it fascinating that people who aren’t growing toward their highest potential feel responsible to psychoanalyze the people who are doing the work.

Kolk, Bessel van der

The most natural way for human beings to calm themselves when they are upset is by clinging to another person. This means that patients who have been physically or sexually violated face a dilemma: They desperately crave touch while simultaneously being terrified of body contact.

Lahey, Jessica

Leitch, Will

McQuiston, Casey

Miller, Madeline

"I cannot bear this world a moment longer." "Then, child, make another."

Montell, Amanda

Moore, Kate

"Incessant talking." "Unusual zealousness." "Strong will." These were, in fact, textbook examples of female insanity in the nineteenth century. Doctors frequently saw pathology in female personality. What could be madder than a woman who wanted to be more than just a wife?

Nagoski, Emily

Penner, Sarah

Porter, Billy

My mother was actively encouraged by her church family and society at large not to love me unconditionally… I was no longer interested in believing in something that didn’t believe in me.

Reid, Taylor Jenkins

Although I can see that each move is my own decision, predicated on nothing but my ever-growing sense that I don’t belong where I am, fueled by the hope that maybe there is, in fact, a place I do belong, a place just off in the future.

Reid, Taylor Jenkins

Our friendship had been a long-distance one since we went off to college. But I never met another woman who meant to me what she did. No one else could make me laugh like she could. So my oldest friend remained my best friend, despite however many miles kept us apart.

Rowley, Steven

Share, Amber

Tucci, Stanley

Weir, Andy

Zauner, Michelle

Boyne, John

Chen, Angela

Cousens, Sophie

I don’t think the scale of other people’s problems makes your own any easier to live with.

DiAngelo, Robin

Doyle, Glennon

There is a life meant for you that is truer than the one you're living. But in order to have it, you will have to forge it yourself. You will have to create on the outside what you are imagining on the inside. Only you can bring it forth. And it will cost you everything.

Evans, Danielle

Fern, Jessica

Frankl, Viktor E.

An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.

Haig, Matt

Henry, Emily

Johnson, George M.

Jollett, Mikel

Did I realize I was wishing I was here?

Jones, Tayari

It was a wonderful feeling to be grown and yet young. To be married but not settled. To be tied down yet free.

Jost, Colin

I have difficulty taking what’s inside my head and saying it out loud. For someone whose job is essentially speaking, this creates a deep anxiety and sometimes a paralysis that keeps me from expressing what I’m really thinking. Whereas the act of writing allows my brain to function in a different way. I can write and not be afraid of what I’m going to say.

Levine, Amir

As painful as it is to be mistreated by your partner, severing an attachment bond is even more excruciating. You may understand rationally that you should leave, but your emotional brain may not yet be ready to make that move.

Mateer, Trista

Miranda, Lin-Manuel

Napolitano, Ann

Noah, Trevor

Growing up in a home of abuse, you struggle with the notion that you can love a person you hate, or hate a person you love. It’s a strange feeling. You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad, where you either hate them or love them, but that’s not how people are.

Nosrat, Samin

Reid, Taylor Jenkins

I’m not sure there is a feeling quite like finding out that you make the person who makes you nervous, nervous.

Reynolds, Jason

Schwab, V.E.

Stayman-London, Kate

Trebek, Alex

Most of the great accomplishments of the world have not been made by people who were certain.

Walschots, Natalie Zina

Wilson, Kevin

Wong, Alice

Atwood, Margaret

Becker, Gavin de

Berendt, John

Bugliosi, Vincent

Whenever people unquestioningly turn over their minds to authoritarian figures to do with as they please—whether it be in a satanic cult or some of the more fanatic offshoots of the Jesus Movement, in the right wing or the far left, or in the mind-bending cults of the new sensitivity—those potentials exist. One hopes that none of these groups will spawn other Charles Mansons. But it would be naïve to suggest that that chilling possibility does not exist.

Cahalan, Susannah

Callahan, Maureen

Doughty, Caitlin

Doughty, Caitlin

It’s just the death revolution. Never you mind.

Duberman, Martin

Farrow, Ronan

“All the women before feel I am their fault,” she said. “And if there were women after me, I feel that is my fault.” She told me she was willing to take another risk—to tell her story again, for the sake of those women yet to come.

Flintstone, Rocky

Gottlieb, Lori

Hibbert, Talia

Jackson, Steve

He smiled at them and said that if his DNA was on the victim “you go ahead and charge me.” The investigators smiled back. “We will,” they replied.

McDiarmid, Jessica

McQuiston, Casey

Allergies: dust, Tide laundry detergent, and shutting the fuck up.

Michaelides, Alex

Miller, Chanel

Why is it that we’re wary of victims making false accusations, but rarely consider how many men have blatantly lied about, downplayed, or manipulated others to cover their own actions?

Pérez, Caroline Criado

They didn’t deliberately set out to exclude women. They just didn’t think about them. They didn’t think to consider if women’s needs might be different. And so this data gap was a result of not involving women in planning.

Phelps-Roper, Megan

Doubt was nothing more than epistemological humility: a deep and practical awareness that outside our sphere of knowledge there existed information and experiences that might show our position to be in error. Certainty is the opposite: it hampers inquiry and hinders growth. It teaches us to ignore evidence that contradicts our ideas, and encourages us to defend our position at all costs, even as it reveals itself as indefensible.

Reid, Taylor Jenkins

Semple, Maria

Westover, Tara

Of the nature of women, nothing final can be known. Never had I found such comfort in a void, in the black absence of knowledge. It seemed to say: whatever you are, you are woman.

Benjamin, Chloe

Capote, Truman

Carreyrou, John

Cooper, Brittney

McNamara, Michelle

Obama, Michelle

Owens, Delia

Rae, Issa

How hard is it to portray a three-dimensional woman of color on television or in film? I’m surrounded by them. They’re my friends. I talk to them every day. How come Hollywood won’t acknowledge us? Are we a joke to them?

Robinson, Phoebe

Rule, Ann

I asked him if there was any effective treatment for people like Bundy. He paused for a moment and said, ‘Only a sledgehammer between the eyes.’

Fisher, Corinne

Honeyman, Gail

The moment hung in time like a drop of honey from a spoon, heavy, golden.

Moore, Kate

He could doubtless see, too, that she was not going to be a pushover. And she certainly was not.

Perel, Esther

Reid, Taylor Jenkins

Thomas, Angie

Duane, James J.

The police officer does not deserve your disrespect, because he or she is only doing his or her job in a criminal justice system that is terribly out of control.

Kaling, Mindy

Larson, Erik

Miranda, Lin-Manuel

Murphy, Julie

Wow. Okay, so this is the worst day ever, right? But the good news is that since this is the worst day ever, tomorrow can only be better. Even if it’s by a little bit.

Paull, Laline

Filled with consecrated anger at every insult and humiliation, every wasted forage and sullied passageway, they avenged themselves on the wastrel favorites, the sacred sons who did nothing for their keep but brag and eat and show their sex to those who must only labor for them and never be loved.

Poehler, Amy

A person’s tragedy does not make up their entire life. A story carves deep grooves into our brains each time we tell it. But we aren’t one story. We can change our stories. We can write our own.

Cahalan, Susannah

We are, in the end, a sum of our parts, and when the body fails, all the virtues we hold dear go with it.

Fey, Tina

Kaling, Mindy

Remarque, Erich Maria

Jackson, Shirley

King, Stephen

Wiesel, Elie

Anderson, Laurie Halse

Johnson, Crockett

Sachar, Louis

I can fix that.