Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
49 quotes
"Finding one’s voice is a process of finding one’s passion."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"We know the quality of another’s heart through her voice."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"When I look in the mirror, I see a woman with secrets. When we don’t listen to our intuition, we abandon our souls. And we abandon our souls because we are afraid if we don’t, others will abandon us."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"Word by word, the language of women so often begins with a whisper."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"I am a woman with wings,' I once wrote and will revise these words again. 'I am a woman with wings dancing with other women with wings.' In a voiced community, we all flourish."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"The courage to continue before the face of despair is the recognition in those eyes of darkness we find our own night vision. Women blessed with death-eyes are fearless."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"When it comes to words, rather than using our own voice, authentic and unpracticed, we steal someone else's to shield our fear."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"It is not possible to satisfy women," a friend said. "We are disturbed if we have children too young. Disturbed if we have then later. Disturbed if we don't have children at all."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"There are two important days in a woman's life: the day she is born and the day she finds out why."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"Women piece together their lives from the scraps left over for them."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"words are much stronger than I am."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"My mother's journals are a shadow play with mine. I am a woman wedded to words. Words cast a shadow. Without a shadow there is no depth. Without a shadow there is no substance. If we have no shadow, it means we are invisible. As long as I have a shadow, I am alive."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"To be read. To be heard. To be seen. I want to be read, I want to be heard. I don't need to be seen. To write requires an ego, a belief that what you say matters. Writing also requires an aching curiosity leading you to discover, uncover, what is gnawing at your bones. Words have a weight to them. How you choose to present them and to whom is a matter of style and choice."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"To withhold words is power. But to share our words with others, openly and honestly, is also power."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"There is comfort in keeping what is sacred inside us not as a secret, but as a prayer."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"Most of all, differences of opinion are opportunities for learning."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"A shadow is never created in darkness. It is born of light. We can be blind to it and blinded by it. Our shadow asks us to look at what we don't want to see. If we refuse to face our shadow, it will project itself on someone else so we have no choice but to engage."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"A shadow is never created in darkness. It is born of light. We can be blind to it and blinded by it. Our shadow asks us to look at what we don’t want to see"
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"When I said, “I am my mother, but I’m not,” I was saying my path would be my own."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"I have found what I need most to heal a broken bond is time together—the very thing I avoid is the thing most desired."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"Silence introduced in a society that worships noise is like the Moon exposing the night. Behind darkness is our fear. Within silence our voice dwells. What is required from both is that we be still. We focus. We listen. We see and we hear. The unexpected emerges."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"the unexpected action of deep listening can create a space of transformation capable of shattering complacency and despair."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"There is an art to writing, and it is not always disclosure. The act itself can be beautiful, revelatory, and private."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
"When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship."
Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice