But by far the worst thing we do to males--by making them feel they have to be hard--is that we leave them with very fragile egos. The harder a man feels compelled to be, the weaker his ego is.

At some point I was a Happy African Feminist Who Does Not Hate Men and Who Likes to Wear Lip Gloss and High Heels for Herself and Not For Men.

Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.

I am just as human as the man.

Marriage can be a good thing, a source of joy, love, and mutual support. But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage, but we don’t teach boys to do the same?

A man who would be intimidated by me is exactly the kind of man I would have no interest in.

But by far the worst thing we do to males — by making them feel they have to be hard — is that we leave them with very fragile egos. The harder a man feels compelled to be, the weaker his ego is.

And then we do a much greater disservice to girls, because we raise them to cater to the fragile egos of males.

A man is likely as a woman to be intelligent, innovative and creative. We have evolved. But our ideas of gender have not evolved very much.

If we do something over and over, it becomes normal. If we see the same thing over and over it becomes normal.

I should never call myself a feminist since feminists are women who are unhappy because they cannot find husbands.So I decided to call myself a Happy Feminist.

I wasn't born to cook or clean, but to read and write, if you don't like me the way I am, then go fly a kite.

You see your reflections in thoughts not things.

the secret of survival was to balance hope and despair

In this world the only opinion that holds court is prejudice.

Not everyone grows to be old, but everyone has been younger than he is now.

I follow my heart, for I can trust it.

As a writer I'm essentially just trying to impersonate a first-time reader, who picks up the story and has to decide, at every point, whether to keep going.

I try to be more goofy when I'm on set now that I'm more comfortable. In real life, I'm so goofy and super weird. I'm never mean but people don't see the weird side of me.

I don't understand American football at all. It looks like all-in wrestling with crash helmets.

I'm just a survivor from the train wreck of the modern world.