Diana Gabaldon Quotes

Certainly, there is a tendency to lump women who write similar types of books together, and it's not just in crime, is it? Women's fiction is supposedly a whole genre of itself. There's no male equivalent.

The image of Ireland is projected as a male image in the acting world, similar to the way that the word of Ireland is male dominated.

Women exist in my imagination. So they are necessarily a type of abstraction. Many women criticise me for this vision, but I explain to them it's to be expected, because I am a man.

I've been typed as historical fiction, historical women's fiction, historical mystery, historical chick lit, historical romance - all for the same book.

People try to make women a very specific thing so that we like them.

Publishers have published women's fiction into a corner, and now we are all trying to punch our way out of it. We just have to write the best books we possibly can and hope that, once the pink covers and Bridget Jones have faded from memory, we might finally be allowed just to be called writers.

I did my dissertation on the idea of femininity and women's writing, so I spent eight months reading about how women are portrayed in the media in terms of images and tone of voice and what words are used.

I also think it's still easy for us - as women, as writers and as directors and producers - to let it fall into the same patterns. Like, "and then the woman brings in the food, because the woman's the one who makes food." It's easy for that to happen, because that's what we've always known.

It's harder for men to imagine themselves as the girl in the movies than it is for me to imagine myself as Daniel Craig bringing down the building.

It is a sad paradox that when male authors impersonate women ... they are said to be dealing with 'cosmic, major concerns' - but when we impersonate ourselves we are said to be writing 'women's fiction' or 'women's poetry.

When people think what is the most simple sort of human, it's a white man, and anything else that is added to that complicates it for people. It comes with all kinds of meanings and connotations. If they have a different skin color, that comes with a connotation. If they're a woman, 'Oh well, what do I feel about that?'

I was used to being the only woman in everything... I didn't even think about it. Men were my role models - there's nothing wrong with that.

I can't believe I managed to go through a liberal-arts and theater education and take all these women's-studies classes and never have addressed that the 'Muppets' were all boys, except for one pig who was obsessed with herself!

What I find weird is that the term 'chick lit' is used to encompass literally anything a woman writes about relationships. It's the assumption that because you're female, you must write in a certain way. I don't understand why that is - it is a bit demeaning.

I was frustrated in general with the way women are always portrayed. And it's always through a man's eyes.

Because I'm an American woman, and I write straight plays, it's always been sort of assumed I would never be done on Broadway. But that was never the goal.

I wasn't taken seriously being the only girl playing in band growing up.

Because I don't look like most lead actresses look, I was told that I shouldn't even come to America. That I shouldn't even try! I think that's ridiculous.

Do people think women from Bollywood aren't smart?

When I started in comics, people were always trying to classify me as either/or. Either a writer who appealed to women or a writer who appealed to guys. This need to categorize was just exhausting.

I hate that we're always called "the all-female Ghostbusters," because you wouldn't refer to the original as "the all-male Ghostbusters."

Because I was a woman, I was vulnerable. It was easy to vilify me and project me as a woman who was not following the tradition of a 'good African woman.'

... I find myself coming out of the library with all women writers. I keep hoping the library attendant won't notice, but when 8 out of 8 of the books you take out are by women, you try not to look too dykey.

A novel is what you call something that won't sell if you call it poems or short stories.

The young-old polarization and the male-female polarization are perhaps the two leading stereotypes that imprison people.