Quote of the Day (Penelope Fitzgerald, on Being a Voice for Those Who Refuse to Submit)

“I am drawn to people who seem to have been born defeated or, even, profoundly lost. They are ready to assume the conditions the world imposes on them, but they don’t manage to submit to them, despite their courage and their best efforts. They are not envious, simply compassless. When I write it is to give these people a voice."— British novelist-biographer Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000), “Why I Write,” in The Afterlife: Essays and Criticism (2003)