Meeting of the Minds at the Salon

Without a shred of guilt, Anne confesses she often finds

an unexpected and unexplained peace during her husband's absence.

I don't need a man to rectify myself, Shirley confides. The most profound

relationship I'll ever have is the one with myself. 

Mahalia says it's easy to be independent when a woman's got money.

Yes, money and a room of her own, Virginia adds.

And Sophia says mistakes are part of the dues paid for a full life.

Martha thinks happiness or misery depends on disposition, not circumstance.

Anais says: We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are.

Janis says: Don't compromise yourself. You're all you've got.

Find out what you're good at, and then do that, says Katherine.

Sister Mary advises: To be successful the first thing to do is fall in love

with your work.

Any woman who writes is a survivor, Tillie announces.

I really only ask for time to write it all - time to write my books.

Then I don't mind dying. I live to write, the other Katherine says.

Gertrude scoffs: Everybody's life is full of stories. Your life

is full of stories. My life is full of stories. All very occupying.

Not really interesting. What's interesting is how the stories are told.

Joyce says great works deal with the human soul caught in the stampede

of time unable to gauge the profundity of what passes over it.

It's all in the art. You get no credit for living, V.S. says.

Vivian concludes: So what actually happens is only raw material.

All that matters is what we make of it.

And that's enough, Eudora says.

–By MaryAnn Easley with thanks to: Anne Shaw, Shirley MacLaine, Mahalia Jackson, Virginia Woolf, Sophia Loren, Martha Washington, Janis Joplin, Katherine Anne Porter, Sister Mary Lauretta, Tillie Olsen, Katjerine Mansfield, Gertrude Stein, Joyce Carol Oates, V.S. Pritchett, Vivian Gornick, Eudora Welty