Virginia Woolf

But the close withdrew: the hand softened. It was over-- the moment.

and even a tea party means apprehension, breakage

Somewhere, everywhere, now hidden, now apparent in what ever is written down, is the form of a human being. If we seek to know him, are we idly occupied?

This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing-room.

There can be no two opinions as to what a highbrow is. He is the man or woman of thoroughbred intelligence who rides his mind at a gallop across country in pursuit of an idea.

It is curious how instinctively one protects the image of oneself from idolatry or any other handling that could make it ridiculous, or too unlike the original to be believed any longer.

Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.

It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality.

The poet gives us his essence, but prose takes the mould of the body and mind entire.

The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.

I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again - as I always am when I write.

If one could be friendly with women, what a pleasure - the relationship so secret and private compared with relations with men. Why not write about it truthfully?

The truth is, I often like women. I like their unconventionality. I like their completeness. I like their anonymity.

The connection between dress and war is not far to seek; your finest clothes are those you wear as soldiers.

Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which is most full of poetry.

It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple: one must be a woman manly, or a man womanly.

Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.

Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.

A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.