Female Protagonists Quotes

• Two phrases I hate in reference to female characters are 'strong' and 'feisty.' They really annoy me. It's the most condescending thing. You say that about a three-year-old. It infantilises women.

  Helen Mirren

  Strong, Hate, Character

  11 Copy quote

• I think boys don't always like to read books with female protagonist - I don't even know what to say about this.

  Jacqueline Woodson

  Book, Boys, Thinking

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• My female protagonist will not be this promiscuous, beautiful, dark-haired, thin lady. It will be a plump, blond, healer and so forth.

  Isabel Allende

  Beautiful, Dark, Female

  "The Mystery Of Isabel Allende: Author Explores New Genre". "All Things Considered" with Kelly McEvers, nwpr.org. January 25, 2014.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• We "chicks" have munched our popcorn while romantic comedies became just comedies, and then each female protagonist got recast for Mathew McConaughey or Seth Rogan.

  Emma McLaughlin

  Female, Popcorn, Comedy

  8 Copy quote

• Films with female protagonists don't attract many eyeballs. Most of them are perceived as feminist films. If Bollywood starts giving women major roles in entertaining movies, then the audience, too, will open up to the idea of watching commercial films in which the actresses do more than just play the role of the hero's love interest.

  Bipasha Basu

  Hero, Play, Ideas

  4 Copy quote

• I really get fired up with female protagonists. I can really feel the difference in myself when I am writing a script that has a woman at the center.

  Linda Woolverton

  Writing, Differences, Female

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• For the blockbusters, people were always telling me that if you write female protagonists, the boys won't go, so you have to put the boys' stuff in it to get everybody. I write for people from 8 to 80, and that's not easy.

  Linda Woolverton

  Writing, Boys, People

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm not interested in making movies only with female protagonists. I think it's ridiculous to think that a female director can't direct men. That makes no sense to me.

  Elizabeth Banks

  Thinking, Men, Directors

  "Elizabeth Banks On Directing, Playing the Hero in ‘Love & Mercy’ and Concluding ‘The Hunger Games’". Interview with Melissa Silverstein, blogs.indiewire.com. September 24, 2015.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's not my business to remedy deaths! It's my business to tell stories. Lyra and the other heroines didn't come with placards saying, "Make this a feminist story!" I'm glad people enjoy seeing a female protagonist in a big adventure story, but I didn't do it for political reasons.

  Philip Pullman

  Adventure, People, Feminist

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Crime is a very hard genre to feminise. If you have a female protagonist she is going to be looking after her mum when she gets older; she is going to be worried about her brother and sister; she will be making a living while bringing up kids.

  Denise Mina

  Brother, Kids, Female

  "Murder she wrote - and plenty of it: Denise Mina on her career". Interview with Peter Guttridge, www.theguardian.com. July 28, 2007.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I had a list of things that science fiction, particularly American science fiction, to me seemed to do with tedious regularity. One was to not have strong female protagonists. One was to envision the future, whatever it was, as America.

  William Gibson

  Strong, America, Lists

  Interview with Zack Handlen, www.avclub.com. September 7, 2010.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• In general, I've found female protagonists more intriguing to work with than males. I cherish women and have always preferred their company, reveling in their perfumes, their contours, their finer-grained sensibilities, lunar intuitions, nurturing instincts and relatively unfettered emotions--although I'm certainly not unaware that there are plenty of neurotic, uptight, stupid women in the world.

  Tom Robbins

  Stupid, Intuition, Males

  4 Copy quote

• I've always read broadly: literary fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, chick lit, historical, dystopian, nonfiction, memoir. I've even read Westerns. I prefer female protagonists.

  Sandra Cisneros

  Historical, Nonfiction, Female

  7 Copy quote