The liar leads an existence of unutterable loneliness.

It is the lesbian in us who is creative, for the dutiful daughter of the fathers in us is only a hack.

Heterosexuality has been forcibly and subliminally imposed on women. Yet everywhere women have resisted it, often at the cost of physical torture, imprisonment, psychosurgery, social ostracism, and extreme poverty.

... in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever: it keeps the underground aquifers flowing; it is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.

But before we were mothers, we have been, first of all, women, with actual bodies and actual minds.

I think about the possibilities for empathy, for mutual solidarity among gay men and lesbians, not simply as people who suffer under homophobia, but as people who are also extremely creative, active, and have a particular understanding of the human condition.

Those who speak largely of the human condition are usually those most exempt from its oppressions - whether of sex, race, or servitude.