Sad is the country that requires women's studies, black and ethnic studies. - Tillie Olsen

There are "hidden injuries of class" whether you are conscious of it or not.

I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron.

There was a guy who testified before the Un-American Activities Committee that it was at the house of Jack and Tillie Olsen that everybody was ordered to throw their party books into the fireplace. The only thing he goofed on was that we never had any fireplace, let alone the fact that it never happened. I was president of the PTA. A neighbor called one morning and said, "Do you have your radio on?" I said, "No." And she said, "Well, you'd better put it on. It's about you." I said, "About me?" So I turned it on fast and heard I was "an agent of Stalin who'd been empowered to take over the San Francisco school system."