Jessamyn West

Jessamyn West
Mary Jessamyn Westwas an American author of short stories and novels, notably The Friendly Persuasion. A Quaker from Indiana, she graduated from Fullerton Union High School in 1919 and Whittier College in 1923. There she helped found the Palmer Society in 1921...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth18 July 1902
CityVernon, IN
CountryUnited States of America
success men soul
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?
business real people
If you train people properly, they won't be able to tell a drill from the real thing. If anything, the real thing will be easier.
two sick different
The sick soon come to understand that they live in a different world from that of the well and that the two cannot communicate.
challenges rattlesnakes teach
A rattlesnake that doesn't bite teaches you nothing.
writing punishment earth
Writing is so difficult that I feel that writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter.
sleep insomnia desert
Sleeplessness is a desert without vegetation or inhabitants.
farewell grieving long
Each death and departure comes to us as a surprise, a sorrow never anticipated. Life is a long series of farewells; only the circumstances should surprise us.
memories memorable magnet
Memory is a magnet. It will pull to it and hold only material nature has designed it to attract.
lost-love humor heart
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.
teenage tragedy needs
At fourteen you don't need sickness or death for tragedy.
writing garden self
There is no royal path to good writing; and such paths as exist do not lead through neat critical gardens, various as they are, but through the jungles of self, the world, and of craft.
funny-inspirational laughing good-times
A good time for laughing is when you can.
memories rocks two
The conversation of two people remembering, if the memory is enjoyable to both, rocks on like music or lovemaking. There is a rhythm and a predictability to it that each anticipates and relishes.
hurt honesty trying
I've done more harm by the falseness of trying to please than by the honesty of trying to hurt.