Quotes About Independence

Those Old Ones followed me, the quiet girl with the long dark hair, The daughter of a warrior who wouldn't give up. I wasn't ready yet, to fling free the cross I ran and I ran through the 2 A.M. streets. It was my way of breaking free. I was anything but history. I was the wind.

She had said that she preferred to be alone for so many years that it was now one of those things that equally well might or might not be true.

Later, her first intense, serious love affair, yes then she'd lost something more tangible, if undefinable: her heart? her independence? her control of, definition of, self? That first true loss, the furious bafflement of it. And never again quite so assured, confident.

I do what I want to do. It was a brash statement of(her)girlhood. Now she was an adult, the boast seemed quaint. For rarely do you know what you want. Even after you've done it you can't say clearly if that was what you'd wanted or just something that happened to you, like weather.

I'm nobody's daughter now. I'm through with that.

I'm Legs Sadovsky I'm FOXFIRE I don't fuck around with guys.

Words are like wild birds - they will come when they wish, not when they are bidden.

I'd like to be your friend—but only if you promise not to ever, ever count on me.

Legs was always proud even before FOXFIRE, that's the primary fact about Legs Sadovsky: pride.

Always, it was claimed of her, she was strong and she was capable. You are not loved for being strong and capable if you are a female but if you are a female and you are strong and capable you will make your way without love.

This determination to manage—to cope—to do as much unassisted as possible—is the Widow's prerogative. You might argue that it's a sign of her wish to appear to be—which is not the same as being—self-sufficient; or you might argue that it is a symptom of her derangement. But then, in the early minutes/hours/days of Widowhood—what is not, if examined closely, a symptom of derangement?

You love the life you've lived, you're an American girl. You believe you have chosen it.

I think we are all cats with nine lives, or even more. We must rejoice in our elusive catness.

No I don't, no I reject that I reject you, I am not your sister, I am not your twin, I am not you.

left the house in time to catch the bus. Lorraine called goodbye after her as always but Tippi scarcely glanced back, and her voice was flat, almost inaudible—"Bye, Mom.

You keep asking me that," she said sharply. "No. I don't care to notify anyone. I can't bear a crowd of relatives around me. I threw away that damned corset in a trash can. I won't return to that." There

Corset,' Mrs. Erskine? I don't understand." Because she was trussed up in one herself, she couldn't comprehend how Ariah had escaped hers.

I told you, Clara. I don't stay in one place long. And nobody comes with me. I don't marry none if them either. Erase me from your head because you're just not the one kid. Not just you're young which you are, but what I want is a voice. A say a woman talks to me, says things to me I don't know and am astonished to hear and I'll know her as soon as I hear her.

If you want a life. Different from your parents.

Momma was terrified of being really poor, dirt-poor, and men would know, always men can sniff out the degree of your desperation Momma believed, and force you to do things you don't want to do or don't exactly want to do at that time or in that place or in that way. When you have your own money, Momma said, you have power. But you can lose it Goddamned fast.

I told you Clara, I don't stay in one place long. And nobody comes with me. I don't marry none of them either. Erase me from your head because you're just not the one kid. Not just that you're young, which you are, but what I want is a voice. A way a woman talks to me, says things to me I don't know and am astonished to hear and I'll know her as soon as I hear her.

no one knew what to do with Ariah Erskine, who refused to behave as others wished her to behave.

While it took much longer than I ever anticipated to see my writing efforts pay off, it finally happened so that at the age of forty-three I was my own woman, beholden to no one.

Despite all of my moaning and groaning about the romantic disasters that continued to befall me, I knew if I were ever forced to choose I would take a good book over a good relationship any day of the week.