In my time and neighborhood (and in my soul) there was only one standard by which a woman measured success: did some man want her? – Jessamyn West
Teaching is the royal road to learning. – Jessamyn West
A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense of humor, for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on oneself. – Jessamyn West
It is very east to forgive others their mistakes it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own. – Jessamyn West
Faithfulness to the past can be a kind of death above ground. Writing of the past is a resurrection the past then lives in your words and you are free. – Jessamyn West
There are two barriers that often prevent communication between the young and their elders. The first is middle-aged forgetfulness of the fact that they themselves are no longer young. The second is youthful ignorance of the fact that the middle aged are still alive. – Jessamyn West
Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking. – Jessamyn West
Sleeplessness is a desert without vegetation or inhabitants. – Jessamyn West
The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future. – Jessamyn West
Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures. – Jessamyn West
