--- title: "Best Ellen Willis Quotes" description: "Ellen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, activist, feminist, and pop music critic. Browse 44 Ellen Willis quotes." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b159/author-colin-thubron-32758.jpg" --- ![Portrait of Ellen Willis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b159/author-colin-thubron-32758.jpg) # Ellen Willis (1941–2006) Journalist United States **44** quotes in **553** categories Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet Ellen Willis was a journalist from the United States, best known for *Beginning to see the light*. ## Quick Facts About Ellen Willis Born December 14, 1941 Died November 9, 2006 Nationality United States Profession Journalist Notable works Beginning to see the light Spouse Stanley Aronowitz ## About Ellen Willis Ellen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, activist, feminist, and pop music critic. A 2014 collection of her essays, The Essential Ellen Willis, received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. ## Awards & Honors National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism ## Quotes by Ellen Willis · Page 2 > [The project of organizing a democratic political movement entails the hope that one's ideas and beliefs are not merely idiosyncratic but speak…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-willis/the-project-of-organizing-a-democratic-political-movement-entails-the/) [Ellen Willis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-willis/) [Belief](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/belief/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d0/ellen-willis-14968_belief_the-project-of-organizing-a-democratic-p_1158997.png) > [My education was dominated by modernist thinkers and artists who taught me that the supreme imperative was courage to face the awful…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-willis/my-education-was-dominated-by-modernist-thinkers-and-artists-who/) [Ellen Willis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-willis/) [Advertiser](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/advertiser/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/982/ellen-willis-14968_advertiser_my-education-was-dominated-by-modernist_478294.png) > [To say that historical conditions made personal life possible, and with it the self-consciousness that allowed psychoanalysis to emerge, is to tell…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-willis/to-say-that-historical-conditions-made-personal-life-possible-and/) [Ellen Willis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-willis/) [Conditions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/conditions/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/729/ellen-willis-14968_conditions_to-say-that-historical-conditions-made-p_1136401.png) > [While liberals appeared to be safely in power, feminists could perhaps afford the luxury of defining Larry Flynt or Roman Polanski as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-willis/while-liberals-appeared-to-be-safely-in-power-feminists-could-perhaps/) [Ellen Willis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-willis/) [Defining](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/defining/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/ellen-willis-14968_defining_while-liberals-appeared-to-be-safely-in_2227192.png) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-willis/#itemlist", "name": "Ellen Willis Quotes", "numberOfItems": 4, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The project of organizing a democratic political movement entails the hope that one's ideas and beliefs are not merely idiosyncratic but speak to vital human needs, interests and desires, and therefore will be persuasive to many and ultimately most people. But this is a very different matter from deciding to put forward only those ideas presumed (accurately or not) to be compatible with what most people already believe.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ellen Willis" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-willis/the-project-of-organizing-a-democratic-political-movement-entails-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d0/ellen-willis-14968_belief_the-project-of-organizing-a-democratic-p_1158997.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d0/ellen-willis-14968_belief_the-project-of-organizing-a-democratic-p_1158997.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d0/ellen-willis-14968_belief_the-project-of-organizing-a-democratic-p_1158997.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The project of organizing a democratic political movement entails the hope that one's ideas and beliefs are…” — Ellen Willis", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "My education was dominated by modernist thinkers and artists who taught me that the supreme imperative was courage to face the awful truth, to scorn the soft-minded optimism of religious and secular romantics as well as the corrupt optimism of governments, advertisers, and mechanistic or manipulative revolutionaries.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ellen Willis" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-willis/my-education-was-dominated-by-modernist-thinkers-and-artists-who/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/982/ellen-willis-14968_advertiser_my-education-was-dominated-by-modernist_478294.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/982/ellen-willis-14968_advertiser_my-education-was-dominated-by-modernist_478294.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/982/ellen-willis-14968_advertiser_my-education-was-dominated-by-modernist_478294.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“My education was dominated by modernist thinkers and artists who taught me that the supreme imperative was…” — Ellen Willis", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "To say that historical conditions made personal life possible, and with it the self-consciousness that allowed psychoanalysis to emerge, is to tell half the story: one also has to consider that the erotic impulse, ever pressing for satisfaction, had something to do with making the history that encouraged its expression.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ellen Willis" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-willis/to-say-that-historical-conditions-made-personal-life-possible-and/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/729/ellen-willis-14968_conditions_to-say-that-historical-conditions-made-p_1136401.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/729/ellen-willis-14968_conditions_to-say-that-historical-conditions-made-p_1136401.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/729/ellen-willis-14968_conditions_to-say-that-historical-conditions-made-p_1136401.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“To say that historical conditions made personal life possible, and with it the self-consciousness that…” — Ellen Willis", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "While liberals appeared to be safely in power, feminists could perhaps afford the luxury of defining Larry Flynt or Roman Polanski as Enemy Number One. Now that we have to cope with Jerry Falwell and Jesse Helms, a rethinking of priorities seems in order.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ellen Willis" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ellen-willis/while-liberals-appeared-to-be-safely-in-power-feminists-could-perhaps/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/ellen-willis-14968_defining_while-liberals-appeared-to-be-safely-in_2227192.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/ellen-willis-14968_defining_while-liberals-appeared-to-be-safely-in_2227192.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/632/ellen-willis-14968_defining_while-liberals-appeared-to-be-safely-in_2227192.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“While liberals appeared to be safely in power, feminists could perhaps afford the luxury of defining Larry…” — Ellen Willis", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-willis/#person", "name": "Ellen Willis", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-willis/", "image": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b159/author-colin-thubron-32758.jpg" }, { "@type": "ProfilePage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-willis/page/2/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-willis/page/2/", "name": "Ellen Willis", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ellen-willis/#person" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d0/ellen-willis-14968_belief_the-project-of-organizing-a-democratic-p_1158997.png" }, "description": "Ellen Jane Willis was an American left-wing political essayist, journalist, activist, feminist, and pop music critic. 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