They [Americans] want to believe that Good and Evil can be defined in precise categories, that Good is already, or will be easily achieved. ... if this optimism appears too superficial, they will try to create a kind of anti-God: the U.S.S.R. That is Evil, and it only needs to be annihilated to re-establish the reign of Good.
Simone de BeauvoirBut women do not say 'We', except at some congress of feminists or similar formal demonstration; men say 'women', and women use the same word in referring to themselves.
Simone de BeauvoirHe reflected. 'I know a lot of different kids of people; what I want is to show each of them how the others really are. You hear so many lies!
Simone de BeauvoirShe was ready to deny the existence of space and time rather than admit that love might not be eternal.
Simone de BeauvoirIf the writer is a woman, feminist or not, it will give the language something that it would not have if it had been used by a man.
Simone de BeauvoirEvery time I start on a new book, I am a beginner again. I doubt myself, I grow discouraged, all the work accomplished in the past is as though it never was, my first drafts are so shapeless that it seems impossible to go on with the attempt at all, right up until the moment - always imperceptible, there, too, there is a break - when it is has become impossible not to finish it.
Simone de Beauvoir