5 Notorious RBG quotes to get you through this Monday morning

We get it. It’s Monday morning. But if you’re anything like me, a good dose of bad-ass feminist inspiration can certainly pick up your step as you reach for your third coffee this morning.

Luckily for us, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave a great interview this past weekend with the American Constitution Society, peppered with reflections on her career, life, and notoriousness. The talk is a tad long, just over an hour, so we distilled five great moments to get you off on your week right.

On her nickname: “It’s amazing. To think of me, an icon, at 82? I attribute it all to an NYU law student who started a Tumblr called ‘The Notorious RBG.’ At first, I didn’t quite know what to make of it because I didn’t even know who the Notorious BIG was. And then my law clerks explained to me, ‘You two have something in common. You were both born and bred in Brooklyn, New York.’”

On the movie being made about her: “Natalie Portman came to talk to me about this. We had a very good conversation. One thing that she insisted on that held up production was that she said, ‘I want the director to be a woman. There are not enough women in this industry, there are many talented ones out there.’ And now they do have a woman director.”

On feminism: “[Feminism] has always been that girls should have the same opportunity to dream, aspire, achieve, to do whatever their God-given talents are, as boys. There should be no place where there isn’t a welcome mat for women.”

On her mother-in-law’s advice on RBG’s wedding day: “She told me, ‘Dear, I’d like to tell you the secret of a happy marriage. That is — it helps sometimes to be a little hard of hearing.’ I’ve found it to be such good advice, not simply dealing with Marty [her husband] who is a very funny fellow, but for dealing with my colleagues.”

On her role models: “When people ask me what women were my role models, I say in my growing up years there were two, one was real and one was fictional. The real one was Amelia Earhart and the fictional one was Nancy Drew.”