The love expressed between women is particular and powerful because we have had to love in order to live; love has been our survival.

The strongest lesson I can teach my son is the same lesson I teach my daughter: how to be who he wishes to be for himself.

You will never be able to defend your city while shouting.

I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self.

If what we need to dream, to move our spirits most deeply and directly toward and through promise, is discounted as a luxury, then we give up the core -- the fountain -- of our power, our womanness; we give up the future of our worlds. (From "Poetry is Not a Luxury")

Self-care is not about self-indulgence , it is about self-preservati on.

For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence.