Solitude offers a lot that being coupled or being in a group does not. It helps us learn what we are capable of.

When you witness the end of a life up close day by day, you begin to understand time and mortality in profound ways. You see time's relativity, death's necessity.

People often say to me now, "Your work changed my life." I'm sure that's an exaggeration, but they say it had a big effect on them and enabled them to change. I'm not sure I believe that a book will cause someone to change.

Our society has very much limited our choices, even regarding the food we think acceptable.

Within walking distance of any spot on Earth there's probably more than enough mystery to investigate in a lifetime.

I think you get mentally ill being homeless. Most of the bag ladies wind up mentally ill pretty quickly - what people would call paranoid - because they are in such danger. I don't know if it's really paranoia because they are in great danger. Terrible things happen to them, and they lose everything. How could they not become at the very least severely depressed?

I don't really think myself that sex work is necessarily more demeaning than other kinds of demeaning work.