I’m old enough and cranky enough now that if someone tried to tell me what to do, I’d tell them where to put it.

For me, it’s enough that I have the first and last word.

Nobody is my boss.

If somebody’s dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they’re going to have to take what they get.

People who truly understand what is meant by self-reliance know they must live their lives by ethics rather than rules.

The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.

I am not bound to please thee with my answer.

There was one incident at a movie theater where my girl got mad at these guys who were talking behind us. I never looked back there, but she was like, ‚Will you all just shut up!‘ And I just got up and moved three rows in front. She was like, ‚What are you doing?!‘ I was like, ‚You better get up here! I don’t play the fighting games.‘

No, we don’t own our children. Our parental privilege is to love them, to lead them, and to let them go.

I myself have been on my own and utterly independent since I graduated. I haven’t belonged to any company or any system. It isn’t easy to live like this in Japan.

Facts, like people, want to be free – and when they’re free, liberty is usually around the corner.

Maybe ‚loner‘ is too strong a word, but I’ve always enjoyed being on my own.

What is a rebel? A man who says no: but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation.

As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

I’m of the school of thought where if you can’t sort something out for yourself then no one can help you.

My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old, she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.

Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.

I mean, I never liked being told what to do. It’s one of the reasons I dropped out of school.

Temptation is just the feeling that you’re the most independent person on planet Earth. That you know everything. That’s something that we all go through as a kid. Now, this lifestyle that I’m in, the same thing exists! But it’s 10 times worse, because everything is at my disposal. When you’re in the limelight, you can get anything you want.

I work hard for the audience. It’s entertainment. I don’t need validation.

I am not a second option person. It is that or nothing. If it is not the way I see it I prefer not to see it.

These are the soul’s changes. I don’t believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one’s aspect to the sun. Hence my optimism.

It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape.

We do not need the empire to give us anything.

I realized why directors are such horrible people – in a way – because you want things to be right, and people will just not listen to you, and there is no time to be nice to people, no time to be delicate.

The woman who is known only through a man is known wrong.

I don’t tell anyone how to write and no one tells me.

What, man, defy the devil. Consider, he’s an enemy to mankind.

One thing I want to make clear, as far as my own rebirth is concerned, the final authority is myself and no one else, and obviously not China’s Communists.

I became a journalist partly so that I wouldn’t ever have to rely on the press for my information.

In 1949, China declared independence – an event known in Western discourse as ‚the loss of China‘ in the U.S. – with bitter recriminations and conflict over who was responsible for that loss.

I was raised to be independent.

The more successful I become, the more I need a man.

The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members.

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.

One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.

Solitude is independence.

I actually feel more of a woman because I feel like I’m being smart about my choices, and I’m putting my family first, and I’m in charge of my life and my health. I think that’s what makes a woman complete.

There are some people, you know, they think the way to be a big man is to shout and stomp and raise hell-and then nothing ever really happens. I’m not like that I never shoot blanks.

If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.

A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

When I got somethin‘ to say, I’ll say it.

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

I won’t let people write anything they want to about me.

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.

Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.

Most people who ask for advice from others have already resolved to act as it pleases them.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

The function of posterity is to look after itself.

I don’t see any possibility of Britain and the U.S. allowing a sovereign independent Iraq; that’s almost inconceivable.

What I tell my kids is, ‚I’m preparing you for college and for life. So, having independence, knowing how to set your own boundaries, figuring out how to make that balance. We still have screen-time rules.‘

Nobody can tell me where I can and can’t go.

I hated to be treated as a child. I thought it was the worst situation.

I shall never be a heretic; I may err in dispute, but I do not wish to decide anything finally; on the other hand, I am not bound by the opinions of men.

My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady and the other was to be independent, and the law was something most unusual for those times because for most girls growing up in the ’40s, the most important degree was not your B.A. but your M.R.S.

Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.

What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self.

If you want to cut your own throat, don’t come to me for a bandage.

I own my own company, so I’ve never had businessmen telling me what to do or getting worried if something doesn’t sell. I’ve always had my own access to the public, because I started off making my clothes for a little shop and so I’ve always had people buying them.