Janis Ian:

I'd had very few female role models; there was no woman to pattern myself after as a professional.  When I was coming up, women didn't lead the band, let alone play lead or write all their own material ... Stella (Adler) changed all that.  She gave me a language for what I'd only felt in my heart.  She set me free, telling me it was not only good to be an artist, it was noble.  It was necessary.  It brought order out of chaos, it served the teeming masses.  It made the world tolerable. 

Society's Child, p. 219