Quotessence
Home / Authors / Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler

Eve Ensler Quotes

Playwright

Filter quotes by topic

AllThinkingBodyPeopleWorldIfsWayKnowsFeelsViolenceWantCancerGivingEarthNeedsBelieveYour BodyMadeStruggleViolência SexualViolence Against Women

Famous Eve Ensler Quotes

“I think there are so many children being brought up in some form of violence, be it violence of poverty or sexism or racism or homophobia or transphobia. That violence takes a life to transform or overcome. I don't think people should be spending their lives dealing with that. I think people should be thriving, playing, creating, evolving.”

PeopleThinkingShouldChildrenFormPovertyViolenceCreatingRacismOvercomingSpendingEvolveSexismHomophobia
Author:Eve Ensler
Create image

“I am worried about this word, this notion - security. I see this word, hear this word, feel this word everywhere. Security check. Security watch. Security clearance. Why has all this focus on security made me feel so much more insecure? ... Why are we suddenly a nation and a people who strive for security above all else?”

PeopleFeelsMadeNationsWatchesFocusSecurityStriveNotionChecksWorriedInsecureClearance
Book:Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security-Obsessed World
Create image

“I really do think how we frame things determines so much of our experience, and I've been talking to a lot of oncologists, like, why don't we call them transformation suites and give people transformation juice and have guides that support people when they're going through chemo so you could actually burn away what needs to be burned away, as opposed to this dread, terror, horror, which is a very different experience.”

PeopleThinkingNeedsGivingDifferentTalkingSupportHorrorTransformationDetermineTerrorGuidesDreadBurnedJuiceDifferent ExperiencesOncologists
Author:Eve Ensler
Create image

“I really believe that is helping people. I've been talking to oncologists about how we can re-frame and re-think the chemo process, so it becomes a much more spiritual, psychological journey. Where people really could burn away what needs to be burned away. It's happening anyway. Why not frame it in a psychological way where it can serve as a transformation?”

PeopleThinkingWayNeedsBelieveHelpingSpiritualProcessTalkingJourneyHappeningsTransformationPsychologicalWhy NotBurnedHelping PeopleOncologists
Author:Eve Ensler
Create image

“I was a young feminist in the '70s. Feminism saved my life. It gave me a life. But I saw how so much of what people were saying was not matching up with what they were doing. For example, we were talking about sister solidarity, and women were putting each other down. We were talking about standing up for our rights, and women weren't leaving abusive relationships with men. There were just so many disconnects.”

PeopleMenYoungTalkingSawsRightsFeminismExampleStandingLeavingFeministSavedSolidarityAbusiveMatchingAbusive Relationship
Author:Eve Ensler
Create image

“What I feel now is connected to people. I feel connected and I feel a lot of love for people. I feel the possibility of what building social movements and what working together in struggle creates. Whatever that energy is, it feels a lot better than what I felt when I was younger - which was worthless and disconnected and isolated and alone.”

PeopleFeelsTogetherEnergySocialFeltStruggleMovementPossibilityBuildingConnectedWorking TogetherIsolatedWorthlessDisconnectedSocial Movements
Author:Eve Ensler
Create image

“Rock-and-roll was an example of change in the body of the culture. I think it's really what helped bring the anti-war movement to its peak and moved people into the streets to seize the day - the movement was the embodiment of what was happening in the music. This is what taught me that it was possible to bring art and activism together. Without that piece, that energetic embodiment piece, the rest is just intellectual construct.”

PeopleThinkingArtWarBodyTogetherCulturePiecesStreetsRocksExampleMovementTaughtIntellectualHappeningsMovedActivismAnti WarRock And RollConstructsEnergeticEmbodimentSeize The DayAnti War Movement
Author:Eve Ensler
Create image

“I think culture is where things change in us deeply. But right now, I think that people are very traumatised. They are very scared. Having grown up in a house with a perpetrator who was violent every day and terrorising every day, I feel like that this country is suddenly very much like the house and the family I grew up in. Every day we are glued to our phones, glued to our television; "What is this psychopath going to do next? How will he embarrass us? Who will he bully or hurt or humiliate today? It's so easy to get locked into a syndrome where the perpetrator is ruling your life.”

PeopleThinkingCountryTodayCultureHouseEasyHurtScaredViolentBullyThings ChangePsychopathHumiliate
Author:Eve Ensler
Create image

“This artistic uprising we had the other night in Washington Square park: there was poetry, there was dance, there was song, there was spoken word; and people left feeling so inspired and so energised. We have to get ourselves out of this syndrome of trauma and being re-traumatised. Art releases this energy. It exposes us to wonder again, and magic again, and ambiguity - all the things we need to really keep going and fighting and resisting in these times.”

PeopleArtFeelingsNightSongFightingEnergyWonderMagicInspiredTraumaArtisticKeep GoingAmbiguitySpoken Word
Author:Eve Ensler
Create image

“There is a beautiful expression in Nicaragua: "struggle is the highest form of song". I love that. We are in the struggle. It's like a river. Once you step into it you become the river. It's not, you go out and click on a couple of charities that you believe in, march in the Women's March, and you're done. Struggle becomes your life, transforming a paradigm that is based on domination into a paradigm of co-operation. Fighting for the liberation of women, of people of color, of indigenous people, of lgbtq communities. Fighting to protect immigrants and assuring the safety of refugees.”

PeopleBelieveDoneBeautifulSongFightingCommunityStruggleCoupleProtectSafetyCharityLiberationMarchRefugeeDominationIndigenousParadigmIndigenous People
Author:Eve Ensler
Create image

“You know I think so many of us live outside our bodies. My dream is that people will find a way back home, into their bodies, to connect with the earth, to connect with each other, to connect with the poor, to connect with the broken, to connect with the needy, to connect with people calling out all around us, to connect with the beauty, poetry, the wildness.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWayHomeDreamBodyEarthPoorBrokenCallingBack HomeNeedyWildnessWay Back HomeBeauty Poetry
Author:Eve Ensler
Create image