there are people who read my work and accuse me of being political! As far as I'm concerned that's like accusing a dog of having a bark!

The death of something living is the price of our own survival, and we pay it again and again. We have no choice. It is the one solemn promise every life on earth is born and bound to keep.

Independence is a complex word in a foreign tongue. To resist occupation, whether you're a nation or merely a woman, you must understand the language of your enemy. Conquest and liberation and democrac and divorce are words that mean squat, basically, when you have hungry children and clothes to get out on the line and it looks like rain.

Lies are infinite in number, and the truth so small and singular.

This will be Great Mam's last spring. Her last June apples. Her last fresh roasting ears from the garden.

In Kilanga, people knew nothing of things they might have had - a Frigidaire? a washer-dryer combination? Really, they'd sooner imagine a tree that could pull up its feet and go bake bread. It didn't occur to them to feel sorry for themselves.

For scientists, reality is not optional.