Vera

“A good leg will fall. A straight back will stoop. A black beard will turn white. A curled pate will grow bald." He held out a small triangle of fruit toward Emilia. "But a good heart, my dear... well, a good heart is the sun and the moon.”
― Jodi Picoult, By Any Other Name

“Maybe there was another girl in the auditorium today who would be bolstered to say no when she was pressured to say yes. Maybe there was someone in power who would pause before they crossed a line. Maybe there needed to be more stories like this, not fewer.”
― Jodi Picoult, By Any Other Name

“Get out," Emilia growled, in a voice she had never heard come from her throat. "I am more than this. It does not matter what you see when you look at me, because you will never know me the way I know myself. And even if I am the only person in the world with that knowledge, it does not make it any less real.”
― Jodi Picoult, By Any Other Name

“The real thing that got me thinking were his female characters. Beatrice... Rosalind... Viola... Portia. They were feminists long before there was ever a woman's movement. But Shakespeare, in real life, had two daughters that he never educated. They didn't even know how to write their own names." Melina shook her head. "I just can't believe a man who created such iconic women in his plays wouldn't want his daughters to have the same rights.”
― Jodi Picoult, By Any Other Name