Zelda Fitzgerald

Being uninteresting is simply not an option...

"She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring."

-Zelda Fitzgerald, The Collected Writings

Henry James

I would love to be described this way:

"She was a woman who, between courses, could be graceful with her elbows on the table."

-Henry James

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I strive to be an individual...

"What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?"

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning

James Joyce

I like to think I've got a little bit of both, but must admit intellect seems to go nowhere unless it is backed by emotion.

"Men are governed by lines of intellect - women: by curves of emotion."

-James Joyce

Tobias Wolff

I think this can be applied to your approach to life, but it is most applicable to my recent past when thinking of relationships:

"The compromises don't diminish us, they humanize us."

-Tobias Wolff