I love writers all across the board, but one who influenced me very directly at the beginning was Mary Renault.
“I'm just talking specifically of women's friendships. If two women go to a bar and they are fighting over men, it makes it much easier for the men. If two women are very close and they act as it makes it very difficult for the men to pull one over on anybody.”
“If the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought.”