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"It wasn't just a little while. I didn't cry. Three times I called you, just three times, and then I ran downstairs to open the door so you could come faster. The clock talked loud. I threw it away, it scared me what it talked."

— Tillie Olsen I Stand Here Ironing (1956)

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More quotes by Tillie Olsen

Sad is the country that requires women's studies, black and ethnic studies.

Kay Bonetti in 1986 article included in Conversations with Grace Paley (1997)

She would not exchange her solitude for anything. Never again to be forced to move to the rhythms of others.

Tell Me a Riddle (1960)

I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron.

"It is a long baptism into the seas of humankind, my daughter. Better immersion than to live untouched."

Tell Me a Riddle (1960)

"But there is more – to rebel against what will not let life be.”

Yonnondio: From the Thirties (1974)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tillie Olsen (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.