Rita Mae Brown Quotes:

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.

Topics: Love, Life, Being Yourself, Inspirations Being Yourself, People In Your Life

One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.

Topics: Happiness, Funny Inspirational, Clever, Memory Loss, Secret To Happiness

Happiness is pretty simple: someone to love, something to do, something to look forward to.

Topics: Simple, Looks

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.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Riding Shotgun”, p.151, Bantam

Topics: Love, Hurt, Pregnancy

If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.

Topics: Failure, Procrastination, Done, Procrastinating, Stop Procrastination

I still miss those I loved who are no longer with me but I find I am grateful for having loved them. The gratitude has finally conquered the loss.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.20, Bantam

Topics: Single, Gratitude, Grateful, Loss Loved One Inspirational, Love And Gratitude

The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.

Topics: Inspirational, Women, Self Esteem, Inspiring Self Esteem, Love Your Self

When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began.

Topics: Reading, Book, Library, Library Cards, Libraries Books And Reading

A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.

Topics: Life, Motivational, Spiritual, Action And Reaction

A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.

Topics: Choices, Decision, Peacefulness, Making Tough Decisions, Wrong Decision

I mean, what do people talk about when they're married?" "Their kids, I guess." "Maybe that's all they have in common.

Topics: Mean, Kids, People

One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.

Topics: Fighting, Action, Reactions

Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.

Topics: Art, Passion, Television

About all you can do in life is be who you are.

Topics: Self Esteem, Be Who You Are, Life Is

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.

Topics: Successful, Sacrifice, Failing

Love is the wild card of existence.

Topics: Love, Love Is, Cards

I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.

Topics: Life, Alive, Leisure, Enjoy Life To The Fullest, Undertakings

He unzipped his pants and his brains fell out.

Topics: Brain, Pants

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.

Topics: Jobs, Writing, Novel

Writers will happen in the best of families.

Topics: Family, Writing, Happy Family

Don't ask to live in tranquil times. Literature doesn't grow there.

Topics: Literature, Quiet, Tranquility

Women need to feel loved and men need to feel needed.

Topics: Men, Needs, Needed

The dead are the only people to have permanent dwellings.

Topics: Dwelling, People

Where there is no faith, devils are a necessity.

Topics: Devil

Nothing is unnatural - just untried.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Venus Envy”, p.75, Bantam

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (1989). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, Bantam

Topics: Funny, Friendship, Depressing, Insanity And Sanity, Mentally Ill

Every day you're alive and someone loves you is a miracle.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2005). “Cat's Eyewitness: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery”, p.116, Bantam

Topics: Love You, Miracle, Alive

My lesbianism is an act of Christian charity. All those women out there praying for a man, and I'm giving them my share.

Topics: Christian, Gay, Men, Lesbianism

If you can't raise consciousness, at least raise hell.

Topics: Consciousness, Hell, Raises

I think gay people are like blondes: There're fewer of them but they have more fun.

Topics: Fun, Gay, Thinking

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.

Topics: Gratitude, Appreciation, Attitude, Pot Of Gold

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.

Topics: Inspirational, Teacher, Work, Inspirational Passion, Meaningful Work

You sell a screenplay like you sell a car. If someone drives it off a cliff, that's it.

Topics: Car, Cliffs, Like You, Jumping Off A Cliff, Screenwriting

A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.145, Bantam

Topics: Business, Inspirational Life, Goal

Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.

Topics: Inspirational, Inspiring, Trust, Trust Your Instincts, Inspire Creativity

Women who love women are Lesbians. Men, because they can only think of women in sexual terms, define Lesbian as sex between women.

Topics: Sex, Men, Thinking, Lesbianism

Morals are private. Decency is public.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.84, Bantam

Topics: Moral, Privacy, Decency

Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.

Topics: Memorable, Moon, Tides, Language And Power

Divorce is the one human tragedy that reduces everything to cash.

Topics: Divorce, Heartfelt, Tragedy, Marriage And Divorce, Marriage Divorce

If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle.

source: - "Sudden Death". Book by Rita Mae Brown, 1983.

Topics: Sexy, Memorable, Math, Logical Reasoning, Reason And Logic

Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself.

Topics: Inspirational, Funny, Birthday, Funny Bumper Sticker

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.

Topics: Balls, Rooms, Realizing

Familiarity breeds consent.

Topics: Consent, Familiarity

Oppression works in such a way that it holds every person responsible for the acts of any wrongdoer of the oppressed group.

Topics: Way, Groups, Discrimination

all outcast peoples struggle to be recognized as individuals. The damage of oppression is that it robs you of your individuality. You're just a faggot. Or whatever - fill in the blank. Everything you do is seen through the prism of your gayness or your womanness or your blackness by some people.

Topics: Struggle, People, Individuality, Gayness, Fill In The Blank

The owner of Mojo's was a suicide blonde, dyed by her own hand.

Topics: Suicide, Hands, Hair, Mojo

Whenever I doubt the existence of God or the Goddess, I look at horses. Only God could have made a horse.

Topics: Horse, Doubt, Looks, Existence Of God

Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.47, Bantam

Topics: Inspiration, Learning, People, Inspirational Learning, Language Culture

People are like tea bags; you never know how strong they'll be until they're in hot water. In times of trouble, you not only discover what you truly believe but whether or not you can act on your beliefs.

Topics: Strong, Believe, Water, Tea Bag, Times Of Trouble

Some people live life and others talk about it.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.161, Bantam

Topics: Live Life, People

I have finally figured out that the purpose of life is to enjoy it.

Topics: Purpose, Life Is, Purpose Of Life

So much of life is happenstance. It makes me laugh when I go to a bookstore and see all those titles about controlling your life. You're lucky if you can control your bladder.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.406, Bantam

Topics: Laughing, Titles, Lucky, Happenstance, Bladder

When God made man she was practicing.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2004). “Cat on the Scent: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery”, p.73, Bantam

Topics: Men, Feminism, Made

Life is unjust, people can be cruel, and yet if you harden your heart, you will lose what little love there is in this world.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Dolley”, p.216, Bantam

Topics: Heart, People, World

Life is too short to be miserable.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (1982). “Southern discomfort”, Harpercollins

Topics: Life Is Too Short, Life Is Short, Miserable

People who care for you inevitably become beautiful.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Bingo”, p.285, Bantam

Topics: Beautiful, People, Who Cares, Care For You

I can only say I wish I had slept with everyone I am accused of.

Topics: Wish, Accused, I Can

Humor comes from self-confidence.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.18, Bantam

Topics: Confidence, Self Confidence, Reality

Femininity and masculinity are social constructs. Female and male are biological. We don't have to learn to be men or women but we do have to learn to be ladies and gentlemen.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.232, Bantam

Topics: Men, Gentleman, Males, Ladies And Gentlemen, Masculinity

Why can't peace be a single overriding common purpose: why do we wait for a crisis to pull us together? Let's pull together for peace.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Bingo”, p.307, Bantam

Topics: Peace, Common Purpose, Waiting

One survey found that ten percent of Americans thought Joan of Arc was Noah's wife.

Topics: Wife, Statistics, Found, Surveys

Two wrongs don't make a right. No, but three will get you back on the freeway!

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Hiss of Death: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery”, p.121, Bantam

Topics: Two, Three, Freeways

If you don't like my book, write your own.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (1982). “Southern discomfort”, Harpercollins

Topics: Book, Writing, Write Your Own

The price of dishonesty is self-destruction.

Topics: Inspirational, Self, Dishonesty, Self Destruction

Normal is the average of deviance.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Venus Envy”, p.126, Bantam

Topics: Average, Deviance, Normal

In America the word revolutionary is used to sell pantyhose.

Topics: America, Revolution, Used, Pantyhose

If you're afraid to die, you're afraid to live. You can't have one without the other.

Topics: Dies, Ifs

Pornography exists for the lonesome, the ugly, the fearful - it's made for the losers.

Topics: Ugly, Loser, Made, Lonesome

I believe in a lively disrespect for most forms of authority.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.8, Bantam

Topics: Life, Cute, Believe, Lively

To have meaningful work is a tremendous happiness.

Topics: Meaningful, Work, Meaningful Work

The process of writing, any form of creativity, is a power intensifying life.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.20, Bantam

Topics: Writing, Creativity, Form

In America sex is an obsession. In Europe it's a fact of life.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.175, Bantam

Topics: Sex, Europe, America

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.

Topics: Want, Rust, Body, Prolonging, Do Whatever You Want

I've got splinters in my nose from the best publishing doors in town.

Topics: Writing, Doors, Splinters

Pain isn't always the enemy.

Topics: Pain, Enemy

Youth moves out, leaving no forwarding address. No matter how you try, you can't reach that person again or that place.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.382, Bantam

Topics: Moving, Leaving, Trying

Any woman whose I.Q. hovers above her body temperature must be a feminist.

Topics: Independent Women, Feminist, Body, Body Temperature

What happens to children and families today who sit around the television? They're watching made-up stories. It's not their experience and it's not truly shared. A human being must learn at a very young age how to connect to other human beings. Our technologies are driving us apart, only connecting us in terms of information, not in terms of emotions.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.138, Bantam

Topics: Children, Technology, Made Up Stories, Families Today

To love without role, without power plays, is revolution.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (1976). “A plain brown rapper”, Diana Pr

Topics: Love, Play, Roles, Power Play

Loving's pretty easy. It's letting someone love you that's hard.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Riding Shotgun”, p.343, Bantam

Topics: Love You, Easy, Hard

Golf is an expensive way to make yourself miserable.

Topics: Golf, Way, Miserable

You can't be truly rude until you understand good manners.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.38, Bantam

Topics: Funny, Witty, Rude, Good Manners

compromise is the work of mature people.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.259, Bantam

Topics: People, Compromise, Mature

I no longer idolize reason. I have come to accept that ninety percent of what we do is irrational and that we spend what little rational thought we have in justifying our irrationality.

Topics: Littles, Reason, Accepting, Rational Thought, Irrationality

Put your money in your head, that way no one can take it from you.

Topics: Way

Cats and dogs believe politicians are like cemetery caregivers; they are on top of everyone, but nobody listens.

source: - "9 Reasons A Cat Should Be President" by Rita Mae Brown, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 18, 2012.

Topics: Dog, Believe, Cat

Class is much more than Marx's definition of relationship to the means of production. Class involved your behavior, your basic assumptions, how you are taught to behave, what you expect from yourself and from others, your concept of a future, how you understand problems and solve them, how you think, feel, act.

Topics: Mean, Thinking, Class

Education is a wonderful thing. If you couldn't sign your name you'd have to pay cash.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.38, Bantam

Topics: Inspirational, Education, Reality

Show me a writer, any writer, who hasn't suffered and I'll show you someone who writes in pastels as opposed to primary colors.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.31, Bantam

Topics: Writing, Color, Show Me, Pastel, Primary Colors

I don't believe in straight or gay. I really don't. I think we're all degrees of bisexual.

Topics: Believe, Gay, Thinking

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.

Topics: Latin, Ninth Grade, Grades

friendship is love made bearable.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.471, Bantam

Topics: Friendship, Made, Bearable

I think you can judge the level of success for any group of people by the reaction against it.

Topics: Thinking, People, Judging

Writers are the moral purifiers of the culture. We may not be pure ourselves but we must tell the truth, which is a purifying act.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.100, Bantam

Topics: Culture, May, Moral, Purifying

Anyone of my generation who trusts government probably has an I.Q. that would make a good golf score.

Topics: Golf, Government, Generations, Good Golf

Virginia Woolf said that writers must be androgynous. I'll go a step further. You must be bisexual.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.33, Bantam

Topics: Bisexual, Virginia, Steps, Bisexuality, Androgynous

I don't think there is a 'gay lifestyle.' I think that's superficial crap, all that talk about gay culture. A couple of restaurants on Castro Street and a couple of magazines do not constitute culture. Michelangelo is culture. Virginia Woolf is culture. So let's don't confuse our terms. Wearing earrings is not culture.

Topics: Couple, Gay, Thinking, Castro, Woolf

All creatures tread across the rubble of ruined civilizations. The trick is to keep moving. No animal ever goes about dispensing shallow compassion.

source: - "9 Reasons A Cat Should Be President" by Rita Mae Brown, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 18, 2012.

Topics: Moving, Animal, Compassion

I'm not a person who worries too much about what I've done.

source: - "Joe Wenke Interviews: Rita Mae Brown on being a Lambda Literary Pioneer". booktrib.com. May 31, 2015.

Topics: Worry, Done, Too Much

All decisions are made on insufficient evidence.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2014). “In Her Day”, p.113, Bantam

Topics: Ignorance, Decision, Made

I'm beginning to feel that the real endangered species on planet earth are not the whales and the elephants but those of us who can laugh at the world and ourselves. ... I fear the dry turn of the American mind, this focus on the literal, as much as I fear our capacity for self-destruction. We've become hagridden by facts, obsessed with product instead of process. Where's the energetic wit, the looney outlook, the frivolity, the lightness of comforting laughter? It has become fashionable to know and unfashionable to feel, and you can't really laugh if you can't feel.

Topics: Laughter, Real, Humor, Self Destruction, Lightness

Unfortunately, Susan didn't remember what Jane Fulton once said, 'Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.

source: - Sudden Death ch. 4 (1983)

Topics: Insanity, Different, Remember, Jane

Seriousness is the refuge of the shallow. There are events and personal experiences that call forth seriousness but they are fewer than most of us think.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.17, Bantam

Topics: Humor, Thinking, Events

Don't hope more than you're willing to work.

Topics: Willing

Computer dating is fine, if you're a computer.

Topics: Fundraising, Dating, Computer, Funny Computer

Content without style is propaganda or adolescence. Style without content is decadence.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.83, Bantam

Topics: Style, Propaganda, Decadence

You're nothing in America if you don't have debt.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.285, Bantam

Topics: America, Debt, Ifs

Self-pity is the simplest luxury.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Bingo”, p.280, Bantam

Topics: Self, Luxury, Pity

Mothers have a habit of proving right except you don't find that out until you're the age your mother was when she gave you the advice.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2014). “In Her Day”, p.120, Bantam

Topics: Mother, Advice, Age

I used to think romantic love was a neurosis shared by two, a supreme foolishness. I no longer think that. There's nothing foolish in loving anyone. Thinking you'll be loved in return is what's foolish.

Topics: Love, Thinking, Two

...funny how people want a return to the good ole days. Of coarse the good ole days of being a rich white plantation owner. Everyone seems to forget the poor white farmer.

Topics: War, White, People, Plantations

So often the truth is told with hate, and lies are told with love.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Bingo”, p.340, Bantam

Topics: Friendship, Truth, Hate

People aren't grapes - you can't weigh them in a bunch, but I guess it's easier than dealing with people as individuals.

Topics: People, Individual, Easier

When Mother died I was both freed and abandoned, as are we all at this profound juncture in our lives.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.384, Bantam

Topics: Mother, Profound, Abandoned, Juncture, Mother Died

Every action is either strong or weak, and when every action is strong we are successful.

Topics: Strong, Successful, Reality

Possession of a secret is no guarantee of its truth.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2014). “In Her Day”, p.122, Bantam

Topics: Secret, Guarantees, Possession

Whoever heard of a neurotic frog? Where do humans get off thinking they're the pinnacle of evolution?

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2014). “Rubyfruit Jungle”, p.215, Bantam

Topics: Thinking, Frogs, Evolution

No animal on the face of the earth could conceive of taxation. You and I work roughly six months a year to pay our local, state and federal taxes. If nothing else, this should convince you that animals are smarter than people.

Topics: Animal, Years, People, Federal Taxes

While cats can be infuriating, little old women in fur coats, they make me laugh. Of course, dogs, horses and my highly social chickens are dear to me, too.

source: - "What We Can Learn From Animals" by Rita Mae Brown, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 18, 2010.

Topics: Dog, Horse, Cat, Fur Coats, Infuriating

Gambling operates under the premise that greed can be satisfied by luck.

Topics: Gambling, Greed, Luck

I believe all literature started as gossip.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.8, Bantam

Topics: Believe, Gossip, Literature

The human animal varies from class to class, culture to culture. In one way we are consistent: We are irrational.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.79, Bantam

Topics: Animal, Class, Culture

Mother believed in enjoying herself. Aunt Mimi believed in enjoying herself, then feeling guilty about it.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.70, Bantam

Topics: Mother, Aunt, Feelings, Feeling Guilty, Mimi

Dean: Don't you find that somewhat of an aberration? Doesn't this disturb you my dear? After all, it's not normal. Molly: I know it's not normal for people in this world to be happy, and I'm happy.

Topics: People, Aberration, World

I believe the true function of age is memory. I'm recording as fast as I can.

source: - "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

Topics: Memories, Believe, Memorable

In sports, as in love, one can never pretend.

Topics: Sports

I believe our concept of romantic love is irrational, impossible to fulfill and the cause of many broken homes. No human being can maintain that rarefied atmosphere of 'true love'.

Topics: Love, Believe, Home, Broken Homes

Life matters more than any painting, novel, film, or great big diamond.

Topics: Life, Matter, Painting

Recognition of function always precedes recognition of being.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.36, Bantam

Topics: Recognition, Function

I do think women avoid power. Power assumes responsibility and accountability, and I think many, many women want to have it both ways.

Topics: Responsibility, Thinking, Accountability, Responsibility And Accountability

If Michaelangelo were a heterosexual, the Sistine Chapel would have been painted basic white and with a roller.

source: - 1988 In the NewYork Times, 15 May.

Topics: White, Sexuality, Chapel, Sistine Chapel

I love literature, the English language and storytelling. I also have thirty horses and seventy foxhounds to feed.

source: - Interview with Janet Justs, ejournals.lib.vt.edu. November 6, 2003.

Topics: Horse, Literature, Language, Love Literature

I had to learn the image is not the word, which is a jolt for a literary soul. But it has served me well in terms of understanding plot, in terms of watching actors develop characters.

source: - Interview with Janet Justs, ejournals.lib.vt.edu. November 6, 2003.

Topics: Character, Understanding, Soul

I always feel bad for those who, in a sense, cede their authority to others, let others make major decisions about their life and actually believe them. When you're tiny, you have no choice. But as soon as your mind starts working, you pretty well figure it out. And you realize you're a hostage until you're old enough to leave. But as long as you have that goal - I will get out of here - you'll be OK.

source: - "Joe Wenke Interviews: Rita Mae Brown on being a Lambda Literary Pioneer". booktrib.com. May 31, 2015.

Topics: Believe, Goal, Long

We have the ability to be the Athens of modern times as opposed to the militaristic Sparta. I remind you that the Athenians wrote poetry. The Spartans did not.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (1987). “Poems”

Topics: Sparta, Athens, Modern, Modern Times, Athenians

whoever said progress was a positive thing has never been to Florida or California.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Bingo”, p.14, Bantam

Topics: Florida, California, Progress

It's a big jump from smart to motherwit.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2014). “In Her Day”, p.100, Bantam

Topics: Smart, Intelligence, Bigs

No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love

source: - 1982 Speech, 28 Aug, at the opening ceremony of the Gay Olympics, San Francisco.

Topics: Gay, Lgbt Pride, Government, Born Gay, Orientation

Do not judge. Never presume to judge another human being anyway. That's up to heaven.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.34, Bantam

Topics: Judging, Heaven, Humans

I believe in art that conceals art.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.8, Bantam

Topics: Art, Believe, I Believe

I have changed my definition of tragedy. I now think tragedy is not foul deeds done to a person (usually noble in some manner) but rather that tragedy is irresolvable conflict.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.82, Bantam

Topics: Thinking, Deeds Done, Tragedy, I Have Changed

I became a lesbian because of women, because women are beautiful, strong, and compassionate.

Topics: Beautiful, Strong Women, Compassionate, Lesbianism

I don't want to die. I think death is a greatly overrated experience.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Bingo”, p.221, Bantam

Topics: Thinking, Want, Overrated

Mother love is the most powerful, the most irrational force on earth, even more powerful than sexual love. However, one does lead to the other, so best not to spurn the former.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2007). “Full Cry: A Novel”, p.329, Ballantine Books

Topics: Love, Mother, Powerful

Dying's not so bad. At least I won't have to answer the telephone.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Venus Envy”, p.1, Bantam

Topics: Dying, Answers, Telephones

I've met many irresponsible people in my life but never an irresponsible cat.

source: - "What We Can Learn From Animals" by Rita Mae Brown, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 18, 2010.

Topics: Cat, People, Mets, Irresponsible

Divorce: fission after fusion.

Topics: Divorce, Fusion, Fission

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.

Topics: Writing, Views, Pay

One thing Mom taught me, "You're going to be dead a long time, so do it now!"

Topics: Mom, Long, Taught

It doesn't matter to me. We're still cousins in our own way. Blood's just something old people talk about to make you feel bad.

Topics: Cousin, Blood, People

Knowing Latin and having two years of Attic Greek gave me the strong foundation upon which I've built a career. I think the classical training, more than anything, has provided me with longevity.

Topics: Strong, Latin, Thinking, Strong Foundation

Never, ever underestimate your readers. Everything you do registers.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.56, Bantam

Topics: Underestimate, Reader, Register

Once you know what women are like, men get kind of boring. I'm not trying to put them down, I mean I like them sometimes as people, but sexually they're dull.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2014). “Rubyfruit Jungle”, p.159, Bantam

Topics: Mean, Men, People

I believe that we often disguise pain through ritual and it may be the only solace we have.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.8, Bantam

Topics: Pain, Believe, May

The human animal dances wildest on the edge of the grave.

Topics: Death, Dance, Animal, Human Animal

No one remembers her beginnings. Mothers and aunts tell us about infancy and early childhood, hoping we won't forget the past when they had total control over our lives and secretly praying that because of it, we'll include them in our future.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2014). “Rubyfruit Jungle”, p.3, Bantam

Topics: Mother, Aunt, Past

Creative people do not belong in the university because the process is antithetical to the analytical process so necessary for proper scholarship.

Topics: People, Creative, Process

I believe every change any word has undergone probably originated in ignorance.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.8, Bantam

Topics: Believe, Ignorance, I Believe

An army of lovers shall not fail.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (1987). “Poems”

Topics: Best Love, Army, Lovers

England is an aquarium, not a nation.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.49, Bantam

Topics: Aquariums, England, Nations

The last thing I have to say is that ice is the past tense of water. I've always wanted to write that sentence and now I have.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.56, Bantam

Topics: Writing, Past, Ice

While the angels, all pallid and wan, Uprising, unveiling, affirm That the play is the tragedy, "Man", And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

Topics: Hero, Angel, Men, Unveiling

Consider the "new" woman. She's trying to be Pollyanna Borgia, clearly a conflict of interest. She's supposed to be a ruthless winner at work and a bundle of nurturing sweetness at home.

Topics: Home, Trying, Winner, Pollyanna

A controller doesn't trust his/her ability to live through the pain and chaos of life. There is no life without pain just as there is no art without submitting to chaos.

Topics: Art, Pain, Chaos, Controllers

If critics want to help me, let them come sit next to me while I'm writing.

Topics: Writing, Next, Want

I think of birth as the search for a larger apartment.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.11, Bantam

Topics: Thinking, Birth, Apartment

I'm sorry that our country and the people do not consider the arts as vital to our well-being as, say, medicine. Suffering is unnecessary. It doesn't make you a better artist; it only makes you a hungry one. However, to me the acquisition of the craft of writing was worth any amount of suffering.

Topics: Country, Art, Sorry

I earned two Emmy nominations for writing, and two of the shows I had written were nominated for best in their category.

source: - "Write On" by Rita Mae Brown, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 18, 2010.

Topics: Writing, Two, Nominations, Emmys

Odd thing about death ... it reaffirms life.

Topics: Life, Odd Things, Odd

Dad could charm a dog off a meat wagon.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Bingo”, p.113, Bantam

Topics: Dog, Dad, Meat

... I distrust manifest knowledge.

Topics: Knowledge, Distrust, Manifest

Never hope for it more than you work for it.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.121, Bantam

I hate the telephone. I think the lowest circle of hell is reserved for Alexander Graham Bell.

Topics: Hate, Thinking, Circles, Circles Of Hell, Graham Bell

Today we live in a society suffering from ethical rickets.

Topics: Suffering, Today, Ethics

The only merciful thing about drug abuse is the speed with which it devastates you. Alcoholics can take decades to destroy themselves and everyone they touch. The drug addict can accomplish this in a year or two. Of course, suicide is even more efficient.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.32, Bantam

Topics: Suicide, Two, Years, Drug Abuse

What's the point of being a lesbian if a woman is going to look and act like an imitation man?

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2014). “Rubyfruit Jungle”, p.147, Bantam

Topics: Men, Looks, Imitation, Lesbianism

You can love more than one person at a time, and I don't give a damn what the self-help books say.

Topics: Love, Book, Self, Don't Give A Damn, Self Help Books

A narcissism shared by two.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Venus Envy”, p.174, Bantam

Topics: Love, Two, Narcissism

Sex is a pleasurable exercise in plumbing, but be careful or you'll get yeast in your drain tap.

Topics: Sex, Exercise, Yeast, Plumbing

Never underestimate the power of self-absorption, including your parents' self-absorption.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.35, Bantam

Topics: Self, Parent, Underestimate, Self Absorption

Tennis, imprisoned within fixed boundaries, a patch of an acre, a green rectangle, tries the human soul. A tennis court is like a coffin, only larger.

Topics: Tennis, Soul, Trying, Rectangles, Tennis Courts

It's still easier to take a blow from outside than it is to be disgusted with myself for not taking a stand. I don't know how people can live and not fight back but apparently millions do. They must hate themselves.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (1987). “Poems”

Topics: Courage, Hate, Fighting

Gossip is irresponsible communication.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (1976). “A plain brown rapper”, Diana Pr

Topics: Communication, Gossip, Irresponsible

Computer dating? It's terrific if you're a computer!

Topics: Dating, Computer, Terrific

Plot involves fragmentary reality, and it might involve composite reality. Fragmentary reality is the view of the individual. Composite reality is the community or state view. Fragmentary reality is always set against composite reality. Virginia Woolf did this by creating fragmentary monologues and for a while this was all the rage in literature. She was a genius. In the hands of the merely talented it came off like gibberish.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.82, Bantam

Topics: Reality, Creating, Views

I think in the years to come what Reagan will be remembered for is that he had the chance to stop the plague and he chose not to because the 'right people' were dying.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2009). “Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser”, p.395, Bantam

Topics: Thinking, Years, People

The real reason Milton went blind was to avoid reading unsolicited manuscripts.

Topics: Real, Reading, Sight

the reason for revolution is so the good things in life circulate.

Topics: Things In Life, Revolution, Reason, Good Things In Life

The only good thing ever done by a committee was the King James version.

Topics: Kings, Done, Good Things

Tragedy massages the human ego even as comedy deflates it. ... Tragedy pits us against large foes and the trip wire is our own character. ... In comedy we fall afoul of one another. Comedy depends on social life, on our behavior in groups. In tragedy you can observe one human against the gods. In comedy it's one human versus other humans and often one man (or woman if I'm writing it) against her own worst impulses.

Topics: Fall, Character, Writing

Book tours are like boot camp but with little sleep and less food.

Topics: Book, Sleep, Boots, Boot Camp

We all want to leave our children the Garden of Eden and we wind up giving them hardscrabble.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (1982). “Southern discomfort”, Harpercollins

Topics: Children, Garden, Wind

I am a comic writer, which means I get to slay the dragons, and shoot the bull.

Topics: Mean, Dragons, Bulls

Alcohol is an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.31, Bantam

Topics: Drinking, Alcohol, Mind, Allergies

I think the reason I choose the comic approach so often is because it's harder, therefore affording me the opportunity to show off. Also, a comic vision is my natural world view, but I've grown up in spite of myself and I can pass the comic twist if it detracts from what the characters need. Yes, the life of a saint is hard.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.82, Bantam

Topics: Character, Opportunity, Thinking, Affording

Never let anyone or any social attitude stand in the way of your productivity.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.25, Bantam

Topics: Attitude, Way, Social

Never let money control you. I'd rather see someone spend every red cent and relish his/her life than scrimp, obsess, and pinch the pennies. There's something repugnant about a person who centers his life around money.

Topics: Red, Pennies, Cents

Never measure literature by accounting statistics. A quarter of working authors earn less than $1,000.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (2011). “Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual”, p.121, Bantam

Topics: Literature, Statistics, Quarters

Trouble is said to be good for an artist's soul but almost never is.

Topics: Artist, Soul, Trouble

Intuition is a suspension of logic due to impatience.

source: - Rita Mae Brown (1982). “Southern discomfort”, Harpercollins

Topics: Intuition, Logic, Instinct, Suspension