A. S. Byatt Quotes

Only trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee.

Alone I'm nothing.

I used to think I needed a man to define myself. Not any more.

I was not raised to be someone's wife. I was raised so that things should be evenly distributed.

Meek wifehood is no part of my profession; I am your friend, but never your possession.

I no longer need to be someone's wife. I'm doing okay as I am.

It's not necessary, in order to be a complete person, that I have a man. It's not the end-all, be-all of my life.

If you're a caretaker, who are you when there's no one else to take care of?

My definition of courage is never letting anyone define you.

I care less if I can't be part of your scene because I am the scene. I am everything that is.

A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.

Don't let others define you. You define yourself.

Let me do me.

Let us first obtain ourselves…Give us ourselves and all that belongs to us will follow.

I'm not asking the public to trust me; I'm asking the public to trust themselves.

I define myself.

I handle my home beautifully. However, I am not just my husband's name.

I decided I would never let anyone decide who I was.

My parents always told me that we won't get you married until you are independent. Women have always been celebrated in my house.

I think people can generally trust me, but they can trust me exactly because they know they don't have to.

We've got minds and souls as well as hearts; ambition and talents as well as beauty and accomplishments; and we want to live and learn as well as love and be loved. I'm sick of being told that is all a woman is fit for! I won't have anything to do with love until I prove that I am something beside a housekeeper and a baby-tender!

Make sure you have your own life before becoming someone's wife ~spoken to Oprah in an interview

Your self-worth is determined by you. You don't have to depend on someone to tell you who you are.

I have urged on woman independence of man, not that I do not think the sexes mutually needed by one another, but because in woman this fact has led to an excessive devotion, which has cooled love, degraded marriage and prevented it her sex from being what it should be to itself or the other. I wish woman to live, first for God's sake. Then she will not take what is not fit for her from a sense of weakness and poverty. Then if she finds what she needs in man embodied, she will know how to love and be worthy of being loved.

My identity depended on men for so long. You can be successful and still have the feeling that if you're not with a man you don't exist.