A biographer says of Natalie Barney and her wealthy, artistic circle: “They were destined, if you like, to break away. I think of modernism as this break from old ways of writing, old ways of seeing, and old ways of being. Of course, to be lesbian or to be gay, you have to break away because look at the patriarchal models, look at the Christian models. You can’t look at the Bible! I mean … leave it, move on. And they did move on in a really trailblazing way.” – Slate