Publicity in women is detestable. Anonymity runs in their blood. The desire to be veiled still possesses them. They are not even now as concerned about the health of their fame as men are, and, speaking generally, will pass a tombstone or a signpost without feeling an irresistible desire to cut their names on it.
Virginia WoolfFew people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning.
Virginia WoolfPeter would think her sentimental. So she was. For she had come to feel that it was the only thing worth saying โ what one felt. Cleverness was silly. One must say simply what one felt.
Virginia WoolfThen may I tell you that the very next words I read were these โ โChloe liked Oliviaโฆโ Do not start. Do not blush. Let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes happen. Sometimes women do like women.
Virginia Woolf