Would you ask a man that?
-- Rebecca Solnit (The Mother of All Quesitons)

Importance: Many of the pithy questions which Solnit and other feminists use to force people to think about everyday injustices work by simply flipping some expectation place on women around, in order to reveal its absurdity.

I set out to write books, to be surrounded by generous, brilliant people, and to have great adventures.
-- Rebecca Solnit (The Mother of All Questions)

Importance: Although Solnit brings her personal life and experiences into her essays quite often, this quote is perhaps the most direct statement of her speaking about herself.

Silence is the ocean of the unsaid, the unspeakable, the repressed, the erased, the unheard. It surrounds the scattered islands made up of those allowed to speak and of what can be said and who listens. Silence occurs in many ways for many reasons; each of us has his or her own sea of unspoken words."
-- Rebecca Solnit (A Short History of Silence)

Importance: In order to structure the many arguments and examples...