What women have to stand on squarely is not their ability to see the world in the way men see it,  but the importance and validity of their seeing it in some other way.
​Mary Hunter Austin,  American Nature Writer of the Southwest
Author of ​The Land of Little Rain
Born September 9, 1868           

Fortune, who gives and takes away all other human blessings, has no power over courage.
Ludovico Ariosto,  Italian Poet
Author of Orlando Furioso
Born September 8, 1474

In a sense much great literature is subversive, since its very existence implies that what matters is art, imagination, and truth. In what we call the real world, on the other hand, what usually counts is money, power, and public success.
​Alison Lurie,  American Novelist & Academician 
Author of The Truth about Lorin Jones
Born September 3, 1926

There are three terrible ages of childhood—1 to 10, 10 to 20, and 20 to 30.
​Cleveland Amory,  American Reporter & Television Critic 
Author of ​The Cat Who Came for Christmas 
Born September 2,  1917

I suppose I have become a sort of living monument in Portugal. But I come from a family with roots all over the world, so the idea of patriotism is not very strong in me. My country is the country of Chekhov, Beethoven, Velasquez—writers I like, painters and artists I admire. 
Antonio Lobo Antunes,  Portuguese Novelist & Medical Doctor
Author of The Land at the End of the World
Born September 1, 1942

Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes.
​Theodore Dreiser, American Novelist &
Journalist 
Author of An American Tragedy 
Born August 27, 1871

Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.
Mother Teresa, Nun,  Catholic Saint,  & Nobel Peace Prize
Born August 26, 1910

I’ve always made a living with words. I’m passionate about sharing with others how to pull off a profitable creative life!
Lorraine C. Ladish,  Bilingual Editor & Author
Author of ​Me Siento Gorda (I Feel Fat​)
​Born August 25, 1963

For a story to be told, it must be told properly, and to tell a story properly, it must be told with respect.
​Anne Cameron,  Canadian Novelist, Poet, & Screenwriter
Author of A Whole Brass Band
Born August 20, 1938

Marriage is the alliance of two people, one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other who never forgets them. 
Ogden Nash,  American Poet & Humorist
Author of ​I'm a Stranger Here Myself
Born August 19, 1902

Like all the centuries and the millennia that have preceded it on earth, the new century also observes the well-known, immobile principle of historical dynamics: power to some, servitude to others.
Elsa Morante, Italian Novelist & Poet
Author of ​History
Born August 18, 1918

Many search for happiness as we look for a hate [sic] we wear on our heads.
​Nikolaus Lenau,  Austrian Poet
Author of The Swabian Songbook: A Selection from Classical Swabian Poetry
​Born August 13, 1802

What has happened to our ability to dwell in the unknowing, to live inside a question and coexist with the tensions of uncertainty? Where is our willingness to incubate pain and let it birth something new? What has happened to patient unfolding, to endurance? These things are what form the ground of waiting.
​Sue Monk Kidd,  American Writer of Historical Fiction 
Author of ​The Secret Life of Bees
Born August 12, 1948

The best way to treat obstacles is to use them as stepping-stones. Laugh at them, tread on them, and let them lead you to something better.
Enid Blyton,  British Children's Writer
Author of ​The Enchanted Wood
​Born August 11, 1897

Writing is like anything—baseball playing, piano playing, sewing, hammering nails. The more you work on it, the better you get. But it seems to take a longer time to get better at writing than hammering nails.
​Betsy Byars, American Author of Children's Books
Author of ​Summer of the Swans
Born August 7,  1928

To be a good storyteller one must be gloriously alive. It is not possible to kindle fresh fires from burned-out embers. I have noticed that the best of the traditional storytellers whom I have heard have been those who live close to the heart of things-to the earth, the sea, wind and weather. They have been those who knew solitude, silence. They have been given unbroken time in which to feel deeply, to reach constantly for understanding. They have come to know the power of the spoken word. These storytellers have been sailors and peasants, wanderers and fisherman.
​Ruth Sawyer,  Writer of Fiction and Non-Fiction for Children and Adults
Author of ​Roller Skates
Born August 5, 1880

It's good not only to realize that you can't please all of the people all of the time, but that you don't want to. There's a certain type of reader that you don't ever want to write for.
​Dennis Lehane,  Author and Screenwriter 
Author of ​Mystic River
Born August 4, ​1965

Something happens between a novel and its reader which is similar to the process of developing photographs, the way they did it before the digital age. The photograph, as it was printed in the darkroom, became visible bit by bit. As you read your way through a novel, the same chemical process takes place.
​Patrick Modiano,  French Novelist, Nobel Prize Winner
Author of ​Ballerina
Born July 30, 1945

What is sad for women of my generation is that they weren't supposed to work if they had families. What were they going to do when the children are grown—watch the raindrops coming down the window pane?
​Jackie Kennedy, Former First Lady, Author, and Editor at Doubleday 
Author of ​One Special Summer
Born July 28, 1929

As you get older no doubt you'll change automatically, just like I did. You will learn all the tricks. You will dress much better, and talk much more, and listen much less. And you'll start to realise that it never does one much good to take anything too seriously at all.
Caroline Blackwood,  Writer and Socialite
Author of ​Great Granny Webster
Born July 16,  ​1931

I don't pare down much. I write the beginning of a story in a notebook and it comes out very close to what it will be in the end. There is not much deliberateness about it.
​Lydia Davis,  American Short Story Writer and Novelist
Author of ​Our Strangers
Born July 15, 1947

When you can't have what you choose, you just choose what you have.
​Owen Wister,  American Novelist 
Author of  The Virginian
Born July 14,  1860

A WRITER'S WIT
Only through art can we get outside of ourselves and know another’s view of the universe which is not the same as ours and see landscapes which would otherwise have remained unknown to us like the landscapes of the moon. Thanks to art, instead of seeing a single world, our own, we see it multiply until we have before us as many worlds as there are original artists.
Marcel Proust,  French Novelist and Critic
Author of ​In Search of Lost Time
Born July 10, 1871

Men are just as willing as women to marry up, and life is now giving them the opportunity... So, women, own up to your accomplishments, buy him a drink, and tell him what you really do.
​Liza Mundy,  American Journalist, Non-Fiction Writer, and Fellow at New America Foundation
Author of Code Girls The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II
Born July 8, 1960