Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence, grappling with hard work.

Adrienne Rich

I am not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.

Dolly Parton

Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.

Alice Walker

Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

Harper Lee

There are moments when a kind of clarity comes over you, and suddenly you can see through walls to another dimension that you’d forgotten or chosen to ignore in order to continue living with the various illusions that make life, particularly life with other people, possible.

Nicole Krauss