Women's quotes: Oprah Winfrey

"You are not built to shrink down to less but to blossom into more." 

–– Oprah Winfrey (b. 1954), American talk show host, TV producer, actress, author, and philanthropist 

Women's quotes: Natalie Jenner

"[O]ne always had to leave some of the past behind to make way for something new." 

–– Natalie Jenner, Canadian writer.

Source: Natalie Jenner. Bloomsbury Girls. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2022, p.182.

via: Commonplace Book, 2022, p. 70. 

Women's quotes: Michelle Obama

"You have to practice success. Success doesn't just show up. If you aren't practicing success today, you won't wake up in 20 years and be successful, because you won't have developed the habits of success, which are small things like finishing what you start, putting a lot of effort into everything you do, being on time, treating people well."

–– Michelle Obama, (b. 1964), American attorney, author, former First Lady of the United States (2009-2017), and first African-American to serve in this role 

Women's quotes: Katherine Anne Porter

"All life worth living is difficult. ... It is a by-product of brave living, and it never comes in the form we expect, or at the season we hoped for, or as the result of our planning for it." 

–– Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980), American writer and political activist 

Source: Natalie Jenner. Bloomsbury Girls. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2022, unpaginated. 

via: Commonplace Book, 2022, p. 70. 

Women's quotes: Georgia O'Keeffe

"Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing."

 –– Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), American artist 

Women's quotes: bell hooks

"Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape."

–– bell hooks, pen name of Gloria Jean Watkins (1952-2021), American writer, academic, & activist 

Women's quotes: Katrine Engberg

"From my perspective, art isn't just about aesthetics. It's a form of cognition that tells you something about being human." 

–– Katrine Engberg (b. 1975), Danish writer, actor, dancer, and choreographer 

Source: Katrine Engberg. The Harbor. Translated by Tara Chace. New York: Scout Press (Imprint of Simon and Schuster), 2019 (Translation 2021), p. 145. 

via: Commonplace Book, 2022, p. 53.

Women's quotes: Toni Morrison

"The function of freedom is to free someone else."

–– Toni Morrison (1931-2019), American novelist 

Women's quotes: Ann Patchett

"Influence is a combination of circumstance and luck: What we are shown and what we stumble upon in those brief years when our hearts and minds are fully open." 

–– Ann Patchett (b. 1963), American writer 

Source: Ann Patchett. These Precious Days: Essays. New York: HarperCollins, 2021; p. 78.

via: Commonplace Book, 2022, p. 18.

Women's quotes: Hanya Yanagihara

"[Y]ou will never be an artist if you don't finish your work. It sounds so simple, and so obvious, and it is. But it's also true: You will never become an artist if you don't spend every day being an artist.

Talent is sexy. Work is not. Only one, however is actually essential. Your career begins if you have the former. But it's finished if you don't do the latter." 

–– Hanya Yanagihara (b. 1974), American writer and editor 

Source: New York Times Style Magazine. 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2019, p. 131. 

Women's quotes: Erykah Badu

"I am only in competition with my last level." 

 –– Erykah Badu (b. 1971), American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress 

Women's quotes:Corita Kent

"The only rule is work. If you work, it will lead to something. It's the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch onto things." 

–– Corita Kent (1918-1986), American artist, designer, educator and former religious sister 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2018, p. 108.

Women's quotes: Rachel Naomi Remen

"At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; a wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity." 

–– Rachel Naomi Remen (b. 1938), American physician and teacher 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2018, p. 101. 

Women's quotes: George Sand

"Let us accept truth, even when it surprises us and alters our views."

–– George Sand, pen name of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, (1804-1876), French writer 

Women's quotes: Alice Walker

"No person is your friend who demands your silence and denies your right to grow."

–– Alice Walker (b. 1944), American writer and activist 

Women's quotes: Georgia O'Keeffe

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way – things I had no words for."

 –– Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), American artist 

Women's quotes: Martha Graham

"It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open." 

–– Martha Graham (1894-1991), American modern dancer and choreographer 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 69.

Women's quotes: Toni Morrison

"In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate."

–– Toni Morrison (1931-2019), American novelist 

Women's quotes: Anaïs Nin

Risk

And then the day came, when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

 –– Anaïs Nin (1903-1977), French-Cuban American writer 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 54.

Women's quotes: Marie Kondo

"Tidying organizes the mind and cleaning purifies it. " 

–– Marie Kondo  (b. 1984), Japanese organizing consultant, author, and TV presenter 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 53.

Women's quotes: Alice Walker

"Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul."

–– Alice Walker (b. 1944), American writer and activist 

Women's quotes: Vivienne Westwood

"You've got to invest in the world, you've got to read, you've got to go to art galleries, you've got to find out the names of plants. You've got to love the world and know the whole genius of the human race. We're amazing people." 

–– Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022), English fashion designer and activist 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 48.

Women's quotes: Georgia O'Keeffe

"To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage." 

 –– Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), American artist 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 47.

Women's quotes: Jeong Kwan

"Creativity and ego cannot go together. If you free yourself from the comparing and jealous mind, your creativity opens up endlessly. Just as water springs from a fountain, creativity springs from every moment. You must not be your own obstacle. You must not be owned by the environment you are in. You must own the environment, the phenomenal world around you. You must be able to freely move in and out of your mind. This is being free. There is no way you can't open up your creativity. There is no ego to speak of. That is my belief."  

–– Jeong Kwan (b. 1957), South Korean Seon Buddhist nun and chef of South Korean cuisine 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 45.

Women's quotes: Michelle Obama

"Success isn't about how much money you make. It's about the difference you make in people's lives."

–– Michelle Obama, (b. 1964), American attorney, author, former First Lady of the United States (2009-2017), and first African-American to serve in this role 

Women's quotes: Ursula K. Le Guin

"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next." 

–– Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018), American author 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 135.

Women's quotes: Zaha Hadid

"I don't think architecture is only about shelter. It should be able to excite you, to calm you, to make you think." 

–– Zaha Hadid (1950-2016), Iraqi-born British architect, artist, designer 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 127.

Women's quotes: Mary Catherine Bateson

"Rituals use repetition to create the experience of walking the same path again and again with the possibility of discovering new meaning that would otherwise be invisible." 

–– Mary Catherine Bateson (1939-2021), American cultural anthropologist and writer 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 114.

Women's quotes: Germaine de Staël

"The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it, but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it." 

–– Germaine de Staël (1776-1817), French woman of letters, conversationalist, and political theorist 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016. p. 71.

Women's quotes: Teresita Fernández

"Our work as artists is courageous and scary. There is no brief that comes along with it, no problem solving that's given as a task ... An artist's work is almost entirely inquiry based and self-regulated. It is a fragile process of teaching oneself to work alone, and focusing on how to hone your quirky creative obsessions so that they eventually become so oddly specific that they can only be your own."

–– Teresita Fernández (b. 1968), American sculptor 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 70.

Women's quotes: Maya Angelou

"If you're going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can't be erased."

–– Maya Angelou (1928-2014), American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist