I think of her as someone who actually is pretty, but pretty in the way in which you can see someone’s intelligence shining out through her face. Which is very attractive, but it cuts out a lot of young movie stars where you can’t tell the difference one from to the other. Every so often you see someone and there is this quality of—I don’t know what you would call it—attentiveness or alertness or intelligence or humor which gives the person a kind of beauty. That is how I imagine her.

Francine Prose on one of her characters in her novel My New American Life. I think this is a really great description of true female beauty. 
20 notes / 13.05.11 / Permalink