You loved people and you came to depend on their being there. but people died or changed or went away and it hurt too much. The only way to avoid that poin was not to love anyone, and not to let anyone get too close or too important. The secret of not being hurt like this again, I decided, was never depending on anyone, never needing, never loving.It is the last dream of children, to be forever untouched.

I am a bleak heroism of words that refuse to be buried alive with the liars.

Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one's own actions or lack of action.

For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.

If you don’t define yourself for yourself then you will be crushed into other's fantasies of you and eaten alive

I became more courageous by doing the very things I needed to be courageous for-first, a little, and badly. Then, bit by bit, more and better. Being avidly-sometimes annoy-ingly-curious and persistent about discovering how others were doing what I wanted to do.

I am a post-mastectomy woman who believes our feelings need voice in order to be recognized, respected, and of use.