The biggest problem that women have is being ambivalent about their own power, ... We should be comfortable with the idea of wielding power. We shouldn't feel that it detracts from our femininity.
I always knew I was a writer. And I always thought to myself, 'Well, why not me?' Someone has to be on the best-seller list, 'Why not me?' Someone has to write for the 'New Yorker,' 'Why not me?' And I didn't really get much positive reinforcement as a kid, so I thought, 'Well let me show you what I can do.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a strong self-belief and determination to succeed against the odds.
In this quote, Elizabeth Wurtzel highlights her unwavering self-confidence and ambition in pursuing her dreams as a writer. Despite lacking encouragement in her early life, she resolved to prove her abilities to herself and others by aiming for significant achievements, such as being on a best-seller list or writing for prestigious publications. Her mantra of 'Why not me?' serves as a powerful assertion of her right to success and recognition, embodying the idea that anyone can aspire to greatness if they believe in themselves.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about pursuing your dreams.
More from Elizabeth Wurtzel
All quotes →The men have piled up in my past, have fallen trenchantly through my life, like an avalanche that doesn't mean to kill but is going to bury me alive just the same.
Whenever I talk to anyone I care about, I am always seeking approval. There is always a pleading lilt in my voice that demands love. Even the people I work with, the ones I am supposed to have a professional relationship with, all business, get pulled into my need. I can't help it. I want to be adored.
Getting help for substance abuse can be reduced to the deceptively simple focus of ‘keeping away from the dope.’ But what does getting help with depression mean? Learning to keep away from your own mind?
Taking a hypersensitive approach to life had come to seem so much more pure and honest then joining the ranks of the numb masses who could let it all slide by. What I stopped realizing was that if you feel everything intensely, ultimately you feel nothing at all. Everything registers at the same decibel.
It's being a grown up, which I never figured out how to do, scrubbing the tub, and remembering to eat and shampoo my hair. It's the basics: I can write a whole book, but I cannot handle the basics.
Similar quotes
... all things are possible if you are willing to put yourself on the line. You cannot stand back and hope for the best. You have to act.
Take the word for it of a man who has made his way inch by inch, and does not believe that we'll wake up to find our work done because we've lain all night a-dreaming of it; anything worth doing is devilish hard to do!
Bruce Lee was an artist and, like him, I try to go beyond the fundamentals of my sport. I want the public to see a knockout in the making.
Since I was a kid, music was what I wanted to do. I thought I could make it by my own talents. That's what I wanted to prove.
When you are the invisible man to the head coach, the only option is to head for the exit.
I'm always focussed on the actual work, and I think that's a much more succinct way to describe what you care about than any speech I could ever make.