We women have lived too much with closure: "If he notices me, if I marry him, if I get into college, if I get this work accepted, if I get this job" -- there always seems to loom the possibility of something being over, settled, sweeping clear the way for contentment. This is the delusion of a passive life. When the hope for closure is abandoned, when there is an end to fantasy, adventure for women will begin.
Carolyn HeilbrunPower is the ability to take one's place in whatever discourse is essential to action and the right to have one's part matter.
Carolyn HeilbrunProfessors of literature collect books the way a ship collects barnacles, without seeming effort.
Carolyn HeilbrunAs long as women are isolated one from the other, not allowed to offer other women the most personal accounts of their lives, they will not be part of any narratives of their ownโฆwomen will be staving off destiny and not inviting or inventing or controlling it.
Carolyn Heilbrun