"A strong woman is a woman who craves love like oxygen or she turns blue choking. A strong woman is a woman who loves strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly terrified and has strong needs. A strong woman is strong in words, in action, in connection, in feeling; she is not strong as a stone but as a wolf suckling her young. Strength is not in her, but she enacts it as the wind fills a sail"
About this Quote
The repetition of "strongly" works like a drumbeat that flips a common insult on its head. Needs, tears, fear: the usual evidence used to disqualify women from seriousness becomes the very proof of power. Piercy’s subtext is political as much as personal. Feminist rhetoric has often been forced to choose between invulnerability (to be respected) and softness (to be loved). Piercy refuses the trade. She insists on a strength that includes mess, appetite, and grief - qualities historically feminized and then dismissed.
The wolf image is doing heavy cultural labor. Not a stone (cold, decorative, inert), but an animal in action: protective, feral, nourishing. It’s maternal without being sentimental, fierce without being masculinized. Then the final pivot: "Strength is not in her, but she enacts it". Strength becomes a verb, not a trait - something made in relationship, crisis, caretaking, work. Like wind in a sail, it’s invisible until it moves something. Piercy’s intent is to reframe women’s emotional intensity not as instability, but as force.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Piercy, Marge. (2026, January 11). A strong woman is a woman who craves love like oxygen or she turns blue choking. A strong woman is a woman who loves strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly terrified and has strong needs. A strong woman is strong in words, in action, in connection, in feeling; she is not strong as a stone but as a wolf suckling her young. Strength is not in her, but she enacts it as the wind fills a sail. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-strong-woman-is-a-woman-who-craves-love-like-173656/
Chicago Style
Piercy, Marge. "A strong woman is a woman who craves love like oxygen or she turns blue choking. A strong woman is a woman who loves strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly terrified and has strong needs. A strong woman is strong in words, in action, in connection, in feeling; she is not strong as a stone but as a wolf suckling her young. Strength is not in her, but she enacts it as the wind fills a sail." FixQuotes. January 11, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-strong-woman-is-a-woman-who-craves-love-like-173656/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"A strong woman is a woman who craves love like oxygen or she turns blue choking. A strong woman is a woman who loves strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly terrified and has strong needs. A strong woman is strong in words, in action, in connection, in feeling; she is not strong as a stone but as a wolf suckling her young. Strength is not in her, but she enacts it as the wind fills a sail." FixQuotes, 11 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-strong-woman-is-a-woman-who-craves-love-like-173656/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.
