Anna Quindlen Quotes

I've always played strong women who are doing their own thing.

If you're a strong female, you don't need permission.

I am a woman of the 21st Century who is self-assured and speaks my mind.

There are some people who still feel threatened by strong women. That's their problem. It's not mine.

I'm not a downtrodden woman. I just won't be.

I love women with attitude.

I think there's something really powerful and refreshing about a woman who is unapologetic.

I was never going to be one of those women who put their career on hold, who put their hand out to their husband to ask permission. I used to think that was the worst.

How does a queen bee behave? However she wants to. But please don't wait for someone to hold the door open for you when your own arms work perfectly fine - do it yourself.

Be empowered as a female, as a woman. Don't apologize. Don't lose yourself in another person's life.

I love strong women.

I love women who don't apologize.

I stood up for myself as I always have done. Nobody has ever told Coco Chanel what to think.

I didn't want to be a sweet boy's sweet girlfriend. I wanted to be Fawn's equal, the kind of girl who stood up for herself and took care of business, who cut guys loose when it was required.

Sometimes, I feel that if you're a strong, independent woman it scares people away, but actually it does the opposite.

I think one thing my mother always instilled in me was a sense of individuality. Being an only child, I never thought I had to rely on anyone. I was never afraid to be alone and I was never afraid to be my own person. So when all my friends were like, "Let's smoke weed," I was like, "I'm not doing it." It wasn't because I was trying to be a rebel or because I didn't like it or I was anti-drugs. I just didn't do it because I didn't want to do it, and if I didn't want to do it, I wasn't doing it. That was it.

Our mother always taught us to be in control of our voice and our bodies and our work, and she showed us that through her example. If she conjured up an idea, there was not one element of that idea that she was not going to have her hand in. She was not going to hand that over to someone. And I think it's been an interesting thing to navigate, especially watching you do the same in all aspects of your work: Society labels that a control freak, an obsessive woman, or someone who has an inability to trust her team or to empower other people to do the work, which is completely untrue.

A woman’s duty: To look the whole world in the face with a go-to-hell look in the eyes… to speak and act in defiance of convention.

Strong women are absolutely unpredictable.

I love women who are bosses and who don't constantly worry about what their employees think of them. I love women who don't ask, "Is that OK?" after everything they say. I love when women are courageous in the face of unthinkable circumstances, like my mother when she was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Or like Gabrielle Giffords writing editorials for the New York Times about the cowardice of Congress regarding gun laws and using phrases like "mark my words" like she is Clint Eastwood. How many women say stuff like that?

I refuse to be a doormat to any man. I will never allow anyone to push me around. I am my own mistress.

Women are not children. We are not fragile little birds who can't cope with jokes, works of art, or controversial speakers.

I am a woman who is a granddaughter of a lady who used to be beaten on the head by her husband, of a mother who went through hell because she was divorced and had to bring up these kids. And I can take 10 men out to lunch and pay the bill, and nobody even thinks twice about it. So don’t mess with me.

At a really young age, I decided I was never going to feel helpless, I was never going to feel weak around a man, and I was never going to rely on anyone.

Never go back, never apologize, and never forget we're half the human race.