Literary Birthday – 28 November – Rita Mae Brown

Happy Birthday, Rita Mae Brown, born 28 November 1944.

15 Quotes

1. When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began.
2. About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.
3. The only queer people are those who don’t love anybody.
4. Writers will happen in the best of families.
5. If you don’t like my book, write your own. If you don’t think you can write a novel, that ought to tell you something. If you think you can, do. No excuses. If you still don’t like my novel, find a book you do like. Life is too short to be miserable. If you do like my novels, I commend your good taste.
6. I’ve met many irresponsible people in my life but never an irresponsible cat.
7. Don’t ask to live in tranquil times. Literature doesn’t grow there.
8. One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.
9. The writer’s job is not to write a novel, hold it up and say, ‘Here I am,’ but to write a novel, hold it up and say, ‘Here YOU are.’
10. I’ve got splinters in my nose from the best publishing doors in town.
11. I think the reward for conformity is everyone likes you but yourself.
12. A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all.
13. I still miss those I loved who are no longer with me but I find I am grateful for having loved them. The gratitude has finally conquered the loss.
14. Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.
15. Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.

Rita Mae Brown is an American author of mystery novels, romance novels and women’s fiction, as well as screenplays and poetry. She is best known for her first novel Rubyfruit Jungle.

by Amanda Patterson

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