Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Heroines

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but I had to jump back on the bandwagon for this week's theme.  As I was looking for pictures for my usual (very high-brow) collage, I realized that so much of these characters are in my mind that it's hard to pick images that actually represent them.  Instead, here they are in (mostly) their own words:

Lisbeth Salander: “Salander leaned back against the pillow and followed the conversation with a smile. She wondered why she, who had such difficulty talking about herself with people of flesh and blood, could blithely reveal her most intimate secrets to a bunch of completely unknown freaks on the Internet.” Steig Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest

Jenny Fraser: "And if your life is a suitable exchange for my honor, why is my honor not a suitable exchange for your life?” Diana Gabaldon, Outlander

Hermione Granger: “Hermione drew herself to her full height; her eyes were narrowed and her hair seemed to crackle with electricity. "No," she said, her voice quivering with anger, "but I will write to your mother.” JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Sabriel: “I used to think like that at school," Sabriel answered. "Dreaming about the Old Kingdom. Proper Charter Magic. Dead to bind. Princes to be --"
"Rescued?”
Garth Nix, Sabriel 

Sammy Keyes: "I thought about dialing 911, but the only phone in the apartment is in the kitchen and since Grams was in there making dinner I couldn't exactly go dialing Emergency without her knowing about it." Wendelin Van Draanen, Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief

Scout Finch: “I thought she was going to spit in it, which was the only reason anybody in Maycomb held out his hand: it was a time-honored method of sealing oral contracts. Wondering what bargain we had made, I turned to the class for an answer, but the class looked back at me in puzzlement.” Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird

Harriet Vane: “I know what you're thinking - that anybody with proper sensitive feelings would rather scrub floors for a living. But I should scrub floors very badly, and I write detective stories rather well. I don't see why proper feelings should prevent me from doing my proper job.” Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night

Janie Crawford: "Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches." Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Scarlett O'Hara: “...all the bullying instincts in her nature rose to the surface. It was not that she was basically unkind. It was because she was so frightened and unsure of herself she was harsh lest others learn her inadequacies and refuse her authority.” Margaret Mitchell, Gone With The Wind

Matilda: “So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone." Roald Dahl, Matilda