“It's not that the authors are unskilled, but we must frequently venture outside our areas of original training. Either the work lies outside anybody's area of original training, or orthodox criticism (in Ellen Moers' words) averts its refined and weary eyes from what only feminists consider important or see as problematic. Much anti-feminist criticism of feminist writing can best be answered with, 'Yeah? And where were you at the time, twinkletoes? Writing your ten-thousandth essay on King Lear?”
Joanna Russ“Minority art, vernacular art, is marginal art. Only on the margins does growth occur.”
Joanna Russ“(Only God can make a tree and She seldom tries, nowadays.)”
Joanna Russ, On Strike Against God“The demon got up. The demon said Fool. To think you can eat their food and not talk to them. To think you can take their money and not be afraid of them. To think you can depend on their company and not suffer from them.”
Joanna Russ, On Strike Against God“Leaning her silly, beautiful, drunken head on my shoulder, she said, "Oh, Esther, I don't want to be a feminist. I don't enjoy it. It's no fun.""I know," I said. "I don't either." People think you decide to be a "radical," for God's sake, like deciding to be a librarian or a ship's chandler. You "make up your mind," you "commit yourself" (sounds like a mental hospital, doesn't it?).I said Don't worry, we could be buried together and have engraved on our tombstone the awful truth, which some day somebody will understand:WE WUZ PUSHED.”
Joanna Russ, On Strike Against God“If you want to live forever you are dreadfully dangerous because you're not living now.”
Joanna Russ, We Who Are About To...“To die on a dying Earth - I'd live, if only to weep.”
Joanna Russ, We Who Are About To...“The reply to this was that Three took out a small revolver, and this surprised me; for everyone knows that anger is most intense towards those you know: it is lovers and neighbors who kill each other. There's no sense, after all, in behaving that way toward a perfect stranger; where's the satisfaction? No love, no need; no need, no frustration; no frustration, no hate, right? It must have been fear.”
Joanna Russ“The trouble with men is that they have limited minds. That's the troublewith women, ”
Joanna Russ“Without meaningful work you might as well be dead.”
Joanna Russ, We Who Are About To...“There are plenty of images of women in science fiction. There are hardly any women.”
Joanna Russ