Rita Brown
Full Name: Rita Mae Brown
Birthdate: November 28, 1944
Birthplace: Hanover, Pennsylvania, U.S.A,
Occupation: Activist, Author, Feminist, Poet, and Screenwriter
Profile: Best known for
Rubyfruit Jungle.
Website: http://www.ritamaebrownbooks.com/
Number of Quotes: 79
A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all.
A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.
A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.
About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you.
Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all.
An army of lovers shall not fail.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1971)
Any woman whose I.Q. hovers above her body temperature must be a feminist.
Art is moral passion married to entertainment.
As a woman, I find it very embarrassing to be in a meeting and realize I'm the only one in the room with balls.
But the question is to find and rear leaders that are really one with the masses...
Context quote.
Computer dating is fine, if you’re a computer.
Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.
Divorce is the one human tragedy that reduces everything to cash.
Don't ask to live in tranquil times. Literature doesn't grow there.
Don't hope more than you're willing to work.
Education is a wonderful thing. If you couldn't sign your name you'd have to pay cash.
Every day you're alive and someone loves you is a miracle.
Every now and then I have a few highly publicized affairs. I thought I owed that to my biographer.
For you to be successful, sacrifices must be made. It's better that they are made by others but failing that, you'll have to make them yourself.
Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment.
Gossip is irresponsible communication.
Happiness is pretty simple: someone to love, something to do, something to look forward to.
He tried to drown his troubles but they knew how to swim.
He unzipped his pants and his brains fell out.
Hollywood called just as I crested thirty.
Humor comes from self-confidence. There's an aggressive element to wit.
I believe in a lively disrespect for most forms of authority.
I believe the true function of age is memory. I'm recording as fast as I can.
I believe you are your work. Don't trade the stuff of your life, time, for nothing more than dollars. That's a rotten bargain.
I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.
I have changed my definition of tragedy.
I have finally figured out that the purpose of life is to enjoy it.
I love literature, the English language and storytelling. I also have thirty horses and seventy foxhounds to feed.
I never met a man I didn't like, until I met a man.
I think the reason I choose the comic approach so often is because it's harder, therefore affording me the opportunity to show off.
I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.
I write poetry. It comes naturally to me, but from a technical point of view it forces me to pay close attention to language and to scan.
I'd rather die my way than live yours.
If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.
If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle.
Sudden Death (1983)
If you don't like my book, write your own. If you don't think you can write a novel, that ought to tell you something.
If you're afraid to die, you're afraid to live.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.
Note: Brown used
this in Sudden Death, but it is widely considered a paraphrase of an earlier anonymous saying.
Intuition is a suspension of logic due to impatience.
Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.
Starting from Scratch
Language is decanted and shared. If only one person is left alive speaking a language... the language is dead.
Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.
Starting from Scratch (2011 edition cited)
Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself.
Leroy bet me I couldn't find a pot of gold at the end, and I told him that was a stupid bet because the rainbow was enough.
Life is too short to be miserable.
Southern Discomfort
Love is the wild card of existence.
Loving's pretty easy. It's letting someone love you that's hard.
Morals are private. Decency is public.
Starting from Scratch
Never hope for it more than you work for it.
No animal on the face of the earth could conceive of taxation. ... this should convince you that animals are smarter than people.
Normal is the average of deviance.
Venus Envy (1993)
Nothing is unnatural — just untried.
One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.
People are like teabags; you never know how strong they'll be until they're in hot water.
So much of life is happenstance. ... You're lucky if you can control your bladder.
So often the truth is told with hate, and lies are told with love.
Some people live life and others talk about it.
Rita Will (2009)
Sorrow is how we learn to love. Your heart isn't breaking. It hurts because it's getting larger. The larger it gets, the more love it holds.
Riding Shotgun
The dead are the only people to have permanent dwellings.
Songs to a Handsome Woman (1973)
The owner of Mojo's was a suicide blonde, dyed by her own hand.
The only queer people are those who don't love anybody.
The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.
The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four people is suffering from a mental illness. Look at your 3 best friends. If they're ok, then it's you.
The writer's job is not to write a novel, hold it up and say, Here I am,
but to write a novel, hold it up and say, Here YOU are.
There hasn't been a day in my life since I started Latin in ninth grade that I haven't benefited by the lives of the ancients.
There are too many parts in our society where you can buy your way in and money is the only value.
Paraphrased.
To love without role, without power plays, is revolution.
—
Say It Isn't So.
The Ladder (1971)
Virginia Woolf said
that writers must be androgynous. I'll go a step further. You must be bisexual.
What's the point of prolonging your life if you don't enjoy it? It's your body. Do whatever you want with it. Better to wear out than rust over.
When God made man she was practicing.
When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began.
Women need to feel loved and men need to feel needed.
Writers will happen in the best of families.
You can't be truly rude until you understand good manners.
You sell a screenplay like you sell a car. If someone drives it off a cliff, that's it.
Last on Earth
