By Any Other Name

by Jodi Picoult

you couldn’t bleed without feeling the sting of the cut.

“Life as a woman is not without risks,”

“Women are given nothing,” she said flatly. “You must learn how to take what you want.”

Because a man who argues is ambitious, but a woman who argues is just a bitch.”

Facts!

“Do you have any clue what it’s like to be a woman?” “Is that a trick question?” “It’s being judged constantly. For your clothes. For your curves. It’s being told every time you turn on the TV that you have to be thinner or more beautiful. It means doing the same job as a man and getting paid less for it. It means if you age naturally you’re letting yourself go, and if you get work done, you’re trying too hard.”

“Being a woman means being told to speak up for yourself in one breath, and to shut up in the next. It means fighting all the fucking time.”

“But what does the outside signify, when it is the inside that matters?”

But playing notes in the right order was not the same as being the one who composed them.

God save her from stupid men.

once you had everything you’d ever wished for, you could not help but fear the moment you wouldn’t.