“I think the only responsibility that writers have is to our own truth. If that happens to merge with contemporary issues, then yes, write that truth. But what we are haunted by is not a thing we choose. And that choice is most certainly not made by the latest headlines.”

— Shobha Rao

On whether writers have the responsibility to write about contemporary issues in “‘I can’t think of a happier story’: Shobha Rao talks GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER” https://www.booklistreader.com/2018/03/06/books-and-authors/i-cant-think-of-a-happier-story-shobha-rao-talks-girls-burn-brighter/ in Booklist Reader (2018 Mar 6)

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Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

“We create our own destiny by the way we do things. We have to take advantage of opportunities and be responsible for our choices.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 63

“I think when we make choices—for
each choice is individual of the choices we have made before—we must examine not
only our reasons for making them but what result they will have, and whether good people will be hurt by our decisions.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“A writer is congenitally unable to tell the truth and that is why we call what he writes fiction.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

“We all choose our own teachers, don't we? I wonder if our choice of teacher shows anything about what our lives will be.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Homecoming saga, Earthborn (1995)

“Women have the right to freely choose and to say yes or no. Everyone should be personally responsible for what happens in life.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Source: Sex, Art and American Culture : New Essays (1992), The Rape Debate, Continued, p. 59
Context: I am being vilified by feminists for merely having a common-sense attitude about rape. I loathe this thing about date rape. Have twelve tequilas at a fraternity party and a guy asks you to go up to his room, and then you're surprised when he assaults you? Most women want to be seduced or lured. The more you study literature and art, the more you see it. Listen to Don Giovanni. Read The Faerie Queene. Pursuit and seduction are the essence of sexuality. It’s part of the sizzle. Girls hurl themselves at guitarists, right down to the lowest bar band here. The guys are strutting. If you live in rock and roll, as I do, you see the reality of sex, of male lust and women being aroused by male lust. It attracts women. It doesn't repel them. Women have the right to freely choose and to say yes or no. Everyone should be personally responsible for what happens in life. I see the sexual impulse as egotistical and dominating, and therefore I have no problem understanding rape. Women have to understand this correctly and they'll protect themselves better. If a real rape occurs, it's got to go to the police. The business of having a campus grievance committee decide whether or not a rape is committed is an outrageous infringement of civil liberties. Today, on an Ivy League campus, if a guy tells a girl she's got great tits, she can charge him with sexual harassment. Chickenshit stuff. Is this what strong women do?