Ruth Reichl

“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.”

Ruth Reichl

Writer and once Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine for ten years as well as previous restaurant critic of the The New York Times

Donna D'Cruz

“Wearing something shiny on the outside is a reminder to be shiny on the inside.”

Donna D’Cruz

Founder of Rasa Music Record Label

Roschelle

“It means so much because it’s not just
a nice room…it shows me that
beauty can come from ashes.”

Roschelle

A Cleveland mother who lost three small children in a house fire. After her community rebuilt the home, Nate Berkus furnished and decorated her living room “while she was sleeping.”

Kelly Corrigan

“You have to speak your dream out loud.”

Kelly Corrigan

Author of "The Middle Place" & "Lift"

Jane Fonda

“It’s a toxic desire to try to be perfect. I realized later in life that the challenge is not to be perfect. It’s to be whole.”

Jane Fonda
Oscar-winning actress

Cathie Beck

"I didn’t know that people come into our lives, and sometimes, if we’re terribly lucky, we get the chance to love them, that sometimes they stay, that sometimes you can, truly, depend on them."

Cathie Beck
Denver-based journalist and creative writer.
Above is an excerpt from her memoir "Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship"
Less than a year after she self-published, it was picked up by Hyperion

Moms Mabley

"A woman's a woman until the day she dies, but a man's only a man as long as he can."

Jackie "Moms" Mabley

Standup comedian who tackled edgy topics

Jill Clayburg

"What bugs me is that movies don't reflect how interesting and vibrant women are. We don't treasure women as they get older."

Jill Clayburg

Stage, TV and Oscar-nominated film actress

Alice Sommer

“Music is God. In difficult times you feel it especially.”

Alice Sommer

The oldest living Holocaust survivor who will celebrate her 107th birthday in November. A concert pianist in Prague, at age 39 she and her young son were deported to Theresienstadt, a concentration camp where artists and musicians were allowed to continue their art for propaganda purposes. She continues to play the piano every day… (to view inspiring 12 minute video, click here)

“I never hate. Hatred only brings hatred”

Anne-Marie Goetz

“Resolution 1325 highlights a very serious justice problem, the problem of exclusion. But it also offers a practical solution to the difficulty of making peace stick in many conflicts. Engaging a broader set of actors in peace talks can make them more legitimate and sustainable. Women are an incredibly important set of peacemakers and central to rebuilding society.”

Anne-Marie Goetz

UNIFEM’s Chief Advisor on Governance, Peace and Security. In a recent interview, she underlined the importance of mobilizing around the 10th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. If fully implemented, the resolution could dramatically speed up efforts to stop sexual violence

Jane Austen

“Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?”

Jane Austen
English novelist of romantic fiction

Kelly Meyer

“We all have been given a gift of one kind or another; it is important to realize and utilize those gifts for the benefit of mankind.”

Kelly Meyer
Environmental Activist

Sarah Bernhardt

“Life engenders life. Energy creates energy.

It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.”

Sarah Bernhardt

French Stage & Film Actress

Marianna Olszewski

“Act as a master of your life by putting your health,

well being and happiness first.”

Marianna Olszewski

Life Coach & Money Expert

Kerry Washington

“…don't have to be perfect. All I have to do is show up and enjoy the messy, imperfect and beautiful journey of my life. It's a trip more wonderful than I could have imagined.”

Kerry Washington

Screen & Broadway actress, member of
V-Counsel, advisors to V-Day, global
movement to end violence against women & girls

Geneen Roth

"We don’t want to eat hot fudge sundaes as much as we want our lives to be hot fudge sundaes."

Geneen Roth

Author, Women Food & God

Amy Bloom

“All intimacy is rare—that's what makes it precious.”

Amy Bloom

Author, nominee for the National Book Award
and the National Book Critics Circle Award

Carrie Levin

“Food is personal. What we eat, cook and serve reflects our character, conviction and taste.”

Carrie Levin

Chef and Owner of NYC’s Good Enough to Eat
"one of the 10 Favorite Places for Breakfast in America" - Bon Appetit

Gwendolyn Brooks

“We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.”

Gwendolyn Brooks

Writer, appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in
Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.

Salma Hayek

“People often say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder.”

Salma Hayek

Mexican actress, director & film producer

Susan Hanson

“What might my life be
like were I to give in
to the rhythms of my own
ragged dance?”

Susan Hanson

Journalist & instructor at
Texas State, her new course
“Writing for Change”

Julia Rogers Hamrick

“Joy is a sort of homing device to guide you back where you belong. When you experience joy, you know you are where you were designed to thrive.”

Julia Rogers Hamrick

Spiritual teacher & visionary author of
“Choosing Easy World”

Jane Lynch

“I realized that if I'm obsessing about my own feelings, I'm not present with the people around me—and am frankly of no use to them.”

Jane Lynch

Comedian, actress and singer,
currently appearing as
Sue Sylvester in the hit series “Glee”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

"There is a solitude which each and every one of us has always carried within.
More inaccessible than the ice cold mountains, more profound than the midnight sea: the solitude of self."

Elizabeth Cady Stanton
American social activist, abolitionist,
and leading figure of the early women’s movement.
Author of Declaration of Sentiments

Vivienne Westwood

“Buy less, choose well, and mix it all.”

Vivienne Westwood
British Fashion Designer of the Year
1990, 1991, and 2006, recognized
for bringing modern punk into the mainstream

Serena Williams

“Venus told me the other day that champions don't get nervous in tight situations. That really helped me a lot. I decided I shouldn't get nervous and just do the best I can.”

Serena Williams
(pictured right) ranked number one in the world,gained her 37th tennis career title with recent Women’s Singles Wimbledon Championship win

Her sister, Venus Williams, is a Wimbledon and Grand Slam champion

Julia Child

“Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything.These are secrets of happiness and good health.”

Julia Child
American chef, author & TV personality

Brenda Ueland

"When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life."

Brenda Ueland
First woman reporter the
Minneapolis Tribune
Author "If You Want To Write:
A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit"

Dolly Parton

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow,
you gotta put up with the rain.”

Dolly Parton
American singer-songwriter, author,
multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist,
best-known for her work in country music.

Ellen Goodman

“There’s a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over - and to let go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its validity or its past importance in our lives.”

Ellen Goodman
Pulitzer prize winning columnist, author,
speaker, and commentator

Lena Horne

"You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way.”

Lena Horne
singer, actress, dancer
& civil rights activist

Cheryl Richardson

“Surrender is the key that unlocks the door to grace.”

Cheryl Richardson
Best-selling author, Master life coach, motivational speaker

Betty White

“All creatures must learn to coexist. That’s why the brown bear and the field mouse can share their lives in harmony. Of course, they can’t mate or the mice would explode.”

Betty White

Actress, comedian & recent host of

Saturday Night Live!

Photo: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage

A Woman In Nashville

“We were soul-weary and body-weary after spending the day clearing out water soaked memories, ruined mementos and dirt caked dreams. Some of us were still covered in the foul mud that crept into our homes and the homes of our neighbors … I felt so grateful for my community. Grateful for the neighbors who banded together when cut off from the rest of the world by raging waters…rescued folks from their front porches by boat...Grateful that we support each other physically and emotionally. We left each other last night...a little more full in the soul than when we had arrived.”
Paige Moore, Bellevue resident, Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville/Middle Tennessee Red Cross

Queen Rania of Jordan

"... education is transformative.
It can rescue a girl from the burdens of adulthood: early marriage and premature pregnancy. It can empower a woman to take control of her life: mind, body, and soul."

Rania Al Adbullah
Queen of Jordan

M.F.K. Fisher

"It seems to me that our three basic needs,
for food and security and love, are so entwined
that we cannot think of one without the other."

M.F.K. Fisher
Author and winner of the 1978 Grande Dame Award
So unlike female-authored cook books of its era (1937),
“Serve It Forth” was thought to be written by a man.

Marian Wright Edelman

"Service is the rent we pay for living."

Marian Wright Edelman

American activist for the rights of children,

founder and president of the

Children's Defense Fund,

now in its fourth decade.

Bobbi Brown

“Beauty isn’t about looking perfect. It’s about celebrating your individuality.”

Bobbi Brown
Makeup artist and CEO of Bobbi Brown Professional Cosmetics
Actively involved with & major financial supporter of
Dress for Success & Jane Addams High School for Academic Careers

Dr. Mae Jemison

“Your life’s work accumulates every day, every second you’re
around.”

—Dr. Mae Jemison

Chemical engineer, scientist, physician, teacher & astronaut who blasted into orbit aboard the space shuttle Endeavor, September 12, 1992

Pearl S. Buck

“Order is the shape upon which beauty depends.”

—Pearl S. Buck

American author who spent most of her
life in China. She won the Pulitzer Prize
for “The Good Earth” in 1932.
In 1938 she was the first American
woman awarded the Nobel Prize
in Literature.

Temple Grandin

“If I could snap my fingers and be nonautistic, I would not. Autism is part of
what I am.”

--Temple Grandin
Doctor of Animal Science and professor at Colorado State University, bestselling author,and consultant to the livestock industry in animal behavior

Condoleezza Rice

“Find what you love to do.
Find your passion. Know what makes
you want to get up in the morning,

that’s all you need.”

—Condoleezza Rice

66th United States
of America
Secretary of State

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

“People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within.”

—Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Swiss-born psychiatrist & the
author of the groundbreaking book On Death and Dying

Drew Barrymore

"There’s something
liberating about
not pretending.
Dare to embarrass
yourself. Risk."
—Drew Barrymore

Ambassador Against Hunger
for the UN World Food Program,
Golden Globe winning actress,
film producer and film director

Diane Nash

“Our goal was not to gain power. It was to heal the torn up community...You can’t kill somebody to make a beautiful community.”

—Diane Nash

Active in the Civil Rights Movement
including Selma Voting Rights, Founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,
2003 Recipient of the Distinguished American Award

Peggy Fleming

I think exercise tests us in so many ways, our skills, our hearts, our ability to bounce back after setbacks. This is the inner beauty of sports and competition, and it can serve us all well as adult athletes.”

—Peggy Fleming

American figure skater and
Winner of the 1968 Olympic Gold Medal