“Do you mind?” she asked.“Mind what?”“While you were looking in the mirror I couldn’t help myself and I began fantasizing about you. And I figured if I was going to continue to fantasize about you, the only polite thing to do was to ask your permission. So now I’m doing the polite thing again and asking, ‘do you mind?’”“No, Nina. I don’t mind at all.”Then she leaned down and kissed him.”

“It’s your world, but I make my way in it. At fifteen, no, I couldn’t stand up to you. The age of illusions, when we know nothing, we hope for everything; we’re wandering in a mist … And the half of the world that’s never had any use for us, suddenly is besieging us. You need us, you adore us, you’re suffering for us. You want everything–except to know what we think. You look deep in our eyes–and put your hand up our dress. You call us, “Pretty thing.” That confuses us. The most beautiful woman, the highest ranked, lives half dazzled by constant attention, half stifled by obvious contempt. We think all we’re good for is pleasing you–till one day, long acquaintance with you dispels the last mist. In a clear light, we suddenly see you as you are–and generally we start preferring ourselves. At thirty, I could finally say no–or really say yes. That’s when you begin backing away from us. Now I’m full-grown. I pursue my happiness the same as any man.”

“The greater part of a men who speak ill of women are speaking of a certain woman.”

“I took it for granted that there must be a few men left in the world who had that kind of strength. I assumed that those men would also be looking for women with principle. I did not want to be among the marked-down goods on the bargain table, cheap because they’d been pawed over. Crowds collect there. It is only the few who will pay full price. “You get what you pay for.”

“We men are fascinated by the things we don’t really understand. It gives us something to think and talk about: like females, they drive us nuts.”

“We’ve come a long way from the time when the crowning achievement in a woman’s life was her youthful marriage. And many would agree that this represents progress for women. But when did the search for someone to marry become self-absorbed and pathetic? This absence of social sympathy for women’s ambitions to marry is all the more striking because the social world has cared so deeply about virtually every other aspect of these privileged young women’s inner and outer lives. (…) The achievement of a good marriage is the one area of life where the most privileged, accomplished, and high achieving young women in society face a loss of support and sympathy for their ambitions and where the social expectations are for disappointment and failure, not success.”

“Because, Jack, you volunteered to be taken down into eternal torment in place of her. This is the absolute minimum (unless I’m mistaken) that any female requires from her man.”

“She knew breaking up with Ethan was going to be a full-time job because being in a relationship with him had also been a full-time job.”

“I asked if you was pleased.’‘Course I’m pleased! You think I’d be mad if I wasn’t pleased?’‘You don’t make a lick of sense,’ he says, but he is smiling now and he takes a step closer to me.”

“Women Empowerment Reminder of The Day. Always respect yourself as a woman. You attract what you are, so be very mindful of how you’re representing yourself. If you want respect, you must first learn how to respect yourself, first. Attracting negative attention is never a good thing. Be a woman of substance! Be a woman that both women and men respect, admire, and look up to. Don’t disrespect yourself by lowering your standards and accepting just anything that comes your way. It’s okay to be single! If you want a relationship of substance, you can’t keep entertaining people and things that mean you no good. Think about it! It’s all up to you.”

“That happens a lot with Shakespeare. The women go after what they want; the men wind up suckered into things.”

“That fist he was raising at me would wham into the cupboard door, hurting only himself. I saw it all happening, then it really did happen. But I didn’t understand the whore thing. Why was he confusing the drinking with the other? Then I got it. Obvious. It was all mixed up for him, all the same thing: the drinking, the other, anything that could make a woman free.”

“He should in humility have asked her why it was that he was naturally a cuckold, why two women of different temperaments and characters had been inspired to have lovers at his expense. He should be telling her, with the warmth of her body warming his, that his second wife had confessed to greater sexual pleasure when she remembered that she was deceiving him.”

“…the Sacred Feminine is not new to the New Age. It is ageless and from the beginning. The Sacred Feminine is in our blood. It is our heritage. You have permission to say, ‘God is Woman,’ and ‘God is Me.”

“Women have always cradled within their bodies secret mysteries of life, death, and rebirth and the healing, grounding, and balancing powers of our Mother in the Earth. We have held these mysteries sacred within us as we would carry babies in our wombs.”