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Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf Quotes

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Famous Virginia Woolf Quotes

“It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything.”

GivingWritingBookCreativityCreativeDoubtGoes OnShapesDeterminationCraftsBubblesCreepsNew BooksResignedCreative Power
Book:A Writer's Diary
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“When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even a very remarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet. . . indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.”

ThinkingMenWritingMotherLostWisePoetDevilTrackSellingNovelistsRemarkableWitchPossessedVentureHerbsSigningWise WomenAnon
Author:Virginia Woolf
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“A strange thing has happened - while all the other arts were born naked, this, the youngest, has been born fully-clothed. It can say everything before it has anything to say. It is as if the savage tribe, instead of finding two bars of iron to play with, had found scattering the seashore fiddles, flutes, saxophones, trumpets, grand pianos by Erhard and Bechstein, and had begun with incredible energy, but without knowing a note of music, to hammer and thump upon them all at the same time.”

IfsHas BeensArtTwoPlayFilmFoundEnergyBornKnowingHappenedStrangeFindingsNotesIncrediblesBarsNakedPianoIronSavagesTribesHammersTrumpetsStrange ThingsSaxophoneFiddleFlutesSeashore
Book:The Essays of Virginia Woolf: 1925-1928
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“The extraordinary woman depends on the ordinary woman. It is only when we know what were the conditions of the average woman's life - the number of children, whether she had money of her own, if she had a room to herself, whether she had help bringing up her family, if she had servants, whether part of the housework was her task - it is only when we can measure the way of life and experience made possible to the ordinary woman that we can account for the success or failure of the extraordinary woman as a writer.”

IfsKnowsWayChildrenMadeHelpingRoomsNumbersConditionsDependsOrdinaryTasksAccountsExtraordinaryAverageServantHouseworkSuccess Or Failure
Book:Virginia Woolf, women and writing
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“In people's eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and uproar; the carriages, motor cars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment in June.”

PeopleMenMomentsEyeCarStrangeBandSingingLondonTriumphOrgansSwingsVansJuneMotorSandwichesBarrelsAeroplanesCarriagesOverheadBrassTrampsShufflingJinglesMotor CarsBrass Bands
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)
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“For such will be our ruin if you, in the immensity of your public abstractions, forget the private figure, or if we in the intensity of our private emotions forget the public world. Both houses will be ruined, the public and the private, the material and the spiritual, for they are inseparably connected.”

IfsWorldSpiritualHouseForgetEmotionFiguresMaterialsConnectedRuinsIntensityRuinedAbstractionImmensity
Book:A Room of One's Own: And, Three Guineas
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“He began to search among the infinite series of impressions which time had laid down, leaf upon leaf, fold upon fold softly, incessantly upon his brain; among scents, sounds; voices, harsh, hollow, sweet; and lights passing, and brooms tapping; and the wash and hush of the sea.”

LightSoundVoiceMemoriesBrainSeaSweetInfiniteSeriesImpressionPassingPassingsHarshScentLeafsHollowFoldsHushIncessantlyTappingBrooms
Book:Selected Works of Virginia Woolf
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“The large shiny black forehead of the first whale was no more than two yards from us when it sank beneath the surface of the water, then we saw the huge blue-black bulk glide quietly under the raft right beneath our feet. It lay there for some time, dark and motionless, and we held our breath as we looked down on the gigantic curved back of a mammal a good deal longer than the raft.”

FirstsTwoTimeBlackWaterDarkDealsSawsFeetHugeBreathsBlueLaysSurfaceYardsForeheadsWhalesMammalsBeneath The Surface
Author:Virginia Woolf
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“Thus when I come to shape here at this table between my hands the story of my life and set it before you as a complete thing, I have to recall things gone far, gone deep, sunk into this life or that and become part of it; dreams, too, things surrounding me, and the inmates, those old half-articulate ghosts who keep up their hauntings by day and night... shadows of people one might have been; unborn selves.”

PeopleHas BeensSelfStoriesDreamHandsMightNightHalfGoneShapesShadowTablesGhostThis LifeRecallsAutobiographyMight Have BeenHauntingDay And NightUnbornStory Of My LifeInmates
Book:The Waves
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