Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) is an American novelist, poet, screenwriter, and humorist. Her works are deeply influenced by her commitment to civil rights activism, lesbian and gay liberation, and the early feminist movement.
Born in Hanover, Pennsylvania, Brown got expelled from the University of Florida at Gainesville for participating in the civil rights movement. She joined Broward Community College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, before moving to New York University from where received a degree in Classics and English. Brown also holds doctorates—in literature and in political science.
In her late 20s, Brown wrote a novel called Rubyfruit Jungle (1973,) a funny coming-of-age story of Molly Bolt and her lesbian experiences in high school and beyond. It was rejected by several publishers before finally appearing in 1973 to great acclaim.
Rubyfruit Jungle was one of the first American novels to portray a lesbian character in a liberated way. It was republished in 1977, translated into many languages, and became an enormously popular book. For many years, it has been a standard text in college courses on women’s studies and lesbian literature.
Brown has also published over 40 books, including Sudden Death (1984,) Venus Envy (1994,) Alma Mater (2002,) and The Sand Castle (2008.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Rita Mae Brown
Education is a wonderful thing. If you couldn’t sign your name you’d have to pay cash.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Education
I believe in a lively disrespect for most forms of authority.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Authority
The process of writing, any form of creativity, is a power intensifying life.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Creativity, Writing, To Be Born Everyday
Love is the wild card of existence.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Love
Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Language
No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love. The only queer people are those who don’t love anybody.
—Rita Mae Brown
Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Culture
Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don’t they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Learning
Computer dating: it’s terrific if you’re a computer.
—Rita Mae Brown
I believe you are your work. Don’t trade the stuff of your life, time, for nothing more than dollars. That’s a rotten bargain.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Work
Writers will happen in the best of families.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Family
I became a lesbian out of devout Christian charity. All those women out there are praying for a man and I gave them my share.
—Rita Mae Brown
Divorce is the one human tragedy that reduces everything to cash.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Divorce
Intuition is a suspension of logic due to impatience.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Logic
One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Memory
I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Simplicity, Goals, Relaxation, Aspirations, Happiness
To love without role, without power plays, is revolution.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Love
A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Inspiration, Goals
Sport strips away personality, letting the white bone of character shine through. Sport gives players an opportunity to know and test themselves.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Sports
The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Originality
A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Decision, Decisions
Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Work, Creativity, To Be Born Everyday, Hope, Hard Work, Trust
Pornography exists for the lonesome, the ugly, the fearful…It’s made for the losers.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Pornography
If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Logic, World, Men
You can’t be truly rude until you understand good manners.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Manners
I believe the true function of age is memory. I’m recording as fast as I can.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Aging, Age
A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Action, Living, Self-reliance
Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Television, Passion
The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they’re okay, then it’s you.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Friend, Sanity, General, Humor
Why can’t peace be a single overriding common purpose: why do we wait for a crisis to pull us together? Let’s pull together for peace.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Peace
Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.
—Rita Mae Brown
Topics: Decisions, Mistakes, Judgement, Experience, Judgment, Failures
All you can do in life is to be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.
—Rita Mae Brown
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Cynthia Ozick American Novelist, Essayist
Charlotte Perkins Gilman American Feminist, Writer
Audre Lorde American Poet, Feminist
Alice Walker American Novelist, Activist
Susan Sontag American Writer, Philosopher
Andre Norton American Science Fiction Writer
Fannie Flagg American Comedian, Novelist
Joyce Carol Oates American Novelist
Margaret Truman American Singer
Lisa Alther American Novelist