Women manage, quite brilliantly, on the whole, and to stunning and unforeseeable effect, to survive and surmount being defined by others. They dismiss the definition, however dangerous or wounding it may be-- or even, sometimes, find a way to utilize it.
Source: In Famous Black Quotations, ed. Janet Cheatham Bell, 1995.
-- James Baldwin, (Aug 2 1924-1987), US novelist, essayist; He was a noted spokesman for American blacks in 1950s-60s.