21 Quotes On Womanhood By Female Authors That Totally Nailed It

21 Quotes On Womanhood By Female Authors That Totally Nailed It

Books can change the way we feel about ourselves. Sometimes, plots reflect our own experiences, guiding us through the future or refracting our memories through a new lens. Other times, we discover pieces of ourselves sprinkled throughout unfamiliar narratives, finding empathy and resonance in odd corners.

The best books, however, move us not just for the stories they tell -- but with the words that they use.

We asked HuffPost editors to share a passage or quote by a female author that spoke to them as women. Some of the passages address womanhood specifically, others speak to humanity in ways that feel fundamentally female to us when we read them. In either case, they are the "aha" moments; the nails hit on the head; the passions awakened.

Here are 21 quotes about womanhood by female authors that strike and stir us every time we read them:

1
Jane Austen
Getty
From Persuasion.
2
Maya Angelou
3
Virginia Woolf
Hulton Archive via Getty Images
4
Sylvia Plath
From The Bell Jar.
5
Nora Ephron
From I Remember Nothing
6
Germaine Greer
From The Change
7
Gloria Steinem
8
E.L. Konigsburg
From From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
9
Cheryl Strayed
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
10
Jennifer Weiner
From Good In Bed.
11
Inga Muscio
From Cunt: A Declaration of Independence
12
Erica Jong
From the essay "The Writer on Her Work."
13
bell hooks
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From Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom.
14
Anna Quindlen
From Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake
15
Staceyann Chin
16
Audre Lorde
17
Alice Munro
From "How I Met My Husband."
18
Francesca Lia Block
Necklace of Kisses
19
Erica Jong
From Fear Of Flying
21
Simone de Beauvoir
From Tête-à-tête.

Before You Go

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