I was obsessed with religious questions, the basics: Why are we here? Why is the world so beautiful?

That is the crowning evil, that we can even go so far as to love each other, you and I. And who else would show us a particle of love, a particle of compassion or mercy? Who else, knowing us as we know each other, could do anything but destroy us? Yet we can love each other.

I love New Orleans physically. I love the trees and the balmy air and the beautiful days. I have a beautiful house here.

Don't you see? It is a new age. It requires a new evil. And I am that new evil.

Like all strong people, she suffered always a measure of loneliness; she was a marginal outsider, a secret infidel of a certain sort.

Was it fair to say I didn't know the full state of my soul?

Being liberated means reading what you want to read, and fantasizing about what you want to fantasize about.