Wise women that inspire me
This one's for the Instaquote huns!
A couple of months ago, I was reading Barbra Streisand’s autobiography. I’ve long been a huge fan of hers - I was at that infamous gig at Castletown House back in 2007, where women in heels and ball gowns were literally getting stuck in the mud - but I never had much more than a rudimentary knowledge about her life and career. I’d seen Funny Girl, watched her famous performances on YouTube, grew up listening to her on a Sunday morning when my mother played her CDs as she ironed. I knew she was a philanthropist, an activist, a legend. But I never truly realised what an absolute BOSS the woman is until I read the book.
It’s absolutely massive, over 1000 pages (and a 48 hour commitment on Audible), so I bought the Kindle version and read it in bed in the dark at night. I have never highlighted as many passages of text to come back to in any other book. Barbra may be an Oscar-winning superstar actor, director, singer, producer and much much more, but she manages to be oddly relatable in a way I’ve never experienced with another celebrity. The book is hilarious - she’s far more interested in describing her antique clothing collection in great detail than say, her relationship with her half sister. But it’s also so chock full of such great advice, it inspired me to share it.
“You need a certain amount of freedom to create.”
I needed to hear this, at the time. Working as a full time writer, it’s so easy to feel lazy and useless when things are quiet. But it’s in that quietness, that empty space, that the magic happens. I’m still not great at not having a rammed schedule, but I’m getting better at it. Barbra says it’s important, who am I to argue?
“I still have those feelings of doubt. At the core of my being are two fundamental qualities ... a confidence in myself and also a deep insecurity.”
You might wonder how someone as successful as Barbra motherf*cking Streisand ever feels insecure, but she is only human. We’re all as neurotic as one another.
"At the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you.”
I struggle to believe this, because it sounds too easy and too woo-woo. You know I’m not a huge one for manifesation. But then, it’s also proven to be true time and time again. The key word is ‘commitment.’ Not wishing, not hoping, but doing.
“And don't worry if you're scared. Everybody who's really good is scared. Use that fear to forge ahead and try something new.”
Everybody who’s good really IS scared. It’s the entire essence of imposter syndrome. You can give in to it, or you can let it drive you.
There are many, many more words of wisdom throughout the book and I implore you to buy it in some format. I’m getting the big ol’ tome for my bookshelves, even if holding it alone gives me carpal tunnel. I know I’m going to read it again and again.
Once I started internalising Barbra’s words, I felt I couldn’t stop. I made it my mission to absorb as much wisdom from the women that have come before me as possible, soaking it all up like the sponge that I am and feeling all the better for it.
“If mistakes felt like mistakes in the moment, we wouldn’t make them, would we?” Tara Westover
I read Tara’s amazing memoir Educated over Christmas. It ticked a lot of boxes for me - fundamentalist Mormon upbringing, accidental entrepreneurship leading to great family wealth, lots of near death experiences and striving for a real world education that would make Tara unlearn basically everything she’d ever known. It’s a remarkable story.
This quote leapt out and punched me in the face at the very moment I needed it. It’s just so TRUE. None of us would ever make mistakes if we realised we were doing it. And making mistakes is perhaps the most human action of all. It is the great equaliser, we all do it. I beat myself up very badly whenever I make an error. I’m still learning how to come back from them well, how not to freeze and wish for invisibilty.
“When a dream breaks in to a million pieces, you can either stick with it, which is unbearable, or you can go off and dream another dream.”
Nora Ephron
Every single sentence Nora has ever uttered or written is quotable. She is the most frank, forthright author and screenwriter, and that’s what makes her work so empathetic, what allowed her to write about relationships so well. She is the queen of dialogue.
This quote can be applied to innumerable scenarios. I’ve personally dreamt many other dreams in my life, and I’ve many more to come I’m sure.
“It’s not a movie about love: it’s a movie about love in the movies.”
Nora Ephron on Sleepless In Seattle
Important!!!! Real life is not a rom com, sadly.
“All I think you learn from failure is that you can have another one.”
Nora Ephron
Again, pretty impossible to imagine her failing. But I’m sure she did, many times over.
“Show me a person who doesn't have a past and I'll show you a boring bastard”
Marian Keyes, Last Chance Saloon
PREACH, Mar!!!!!!
”My only advice is to stay aware, listen carefully and yell for help if you need it.”
Judy Blume
Always practical, our Judes. But this can be applied to myriad situations. Jesus, I apply it to email correspondence.
This newsletter could be yards long, there are so many amazing quotes out there from authors, playwrights, screenwriters, journalists, essayists, fellow Substackers. If you read any non-fiction book this month, let it be Katriona O’Sullivan’s Poor. It’s winning all of those awards for good reason. You don’t need to be able to personally relate to her story of being raised in poverty and surrounded by addiction to be moved by it. It’s one of those books that will stick with you long after you’ve read it, even if it isn’t littered with stand out motivational soundbytes.
Before I go, back to Barbra. It’s obvious from her book that she doesn’t want to be remembered for what most people WILL remember her for, which is singing. She has a once in a generation voice, a soaring, almost unbelievable talent that people have been swept away by for decades. While she appreciates this talent and has used and enjoyed it to be the best of ability, she wants to be known first and foremost as an actor and a director. I scoffed a bit at this thinking Babs hun, you don’t get to pick and choose. That was until I watched the films she’s simultaneously helmed and starred in. Yentl is remarkable, but it won’t be for everyone. But take my advice, and check out The Mirror Has Two Faces, and The Prince Of Tides. Both absolutely fantastic, the latter heavier in subject matter than the former. Both available to rent on Sky or Apple.
January is a month for inspiration, and I hope you took some from this. But if you see me making and sharing Instaquote graphics, please tell me to stop. I beg.