I've been described as a tough and noisy woman, a prize fighter, a man-hater, you name it. They call me Battling Bella, Mother Cou...rage, and a Jewish mother with more complaints than Portnoy. There are those who say I'm impatient, impetuous, uppity, rude, profane, brash, and overbearing. Whether I'm any of those things, or all of them, you can decide for yourself. But whatever I am --and this ought to be made very clear--I am a very serious woman.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The primary imperative for women who intend to assume a meaningful and decisive role in today's social change is to begin to perce...ive themselves as having an identity and personal integrity that has as strong a claim for being preserved intact as that of any other individual or group.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have never been able to accept the two great laws of humanity--that you're always being suppressed if you're inspired and always... being pushed into the corner if you're exceptional. I won't be cornered and I won't stay suppressed.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... what is especially insufferable in a woman is a restless, bold, domineering manner, for this manner goes against nature.... [e...llipsis in source] No matter what her worth, no matter that she never forgets that she could be a man by virtue of her superiority of mind and the force of her will, on the outside she must be a woman! She must present herself as that creature made to please, to love to seek support, that being who is inferior to man and who approaches the angels.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There are various forms of the disease which the victim is unable to say "No." Some of these forms are more serious than others, a...nd often lead to electrocution or marriage.... "No-phobia" reaches its height of futility when someone is giving you directions as to how to reach some place that you really want to reach.... The result is, I spend the night crashing up and down the wrong streets and am known as a boor who never arrives on time. And all because I didn't have the guts to say, "I haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Although I've risen! and my back is bold. My tongue is brainy, choosing from among... Care, rage, surprise, despair, and choosing care. I'm semi-splendid within what I've defended.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
[In response to this question from an interviewer: "U. S. News and World Report described you this way: 'She's intolerant, preachy..., judgmental and overbearing. She's bright, articulate, passionate and kind.' Is that an accurate description?":] It's ... pretty good [ellipsis in original].LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
...I am who I am because I'm a black female.... When I was health director in Arkansas ... I could talk about teen-age pregnancy, ...about poverty, ignorance and enslavement and how the white power structure had imposed it--only because I was a black female. I mean, black people would have eaten up a white male who said what I did.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »