The notion that the maternal wish and the activity of mothering are instinctive or biologically predestined is baloney.

Scratch most feminists and underneath there is a woman who longs to be a sex object. The difference is that is not all she wants to be.

Disease may score a direct hit on only one member of a family, but shrapnel tears the flesh of the others.

[On her mastectomy:] Fact is, I'm the same car I always was, except now I have a dent in my fender.

[On her mastectomy:] Pity is delicious. I was crazy about the pity I got. It was the best kind, too. I did not get, nor did I want, the drooling, mewing kind. I preferred something more restrained but deep-felt. Quality pity.

... to be afraid is in a way to be hopeful, because to be afraid means that you haven't given up. You know it doesn't help, but you keep thrashing. The monster has you pinned to the wall, but you're not ready to say, 'Oh, hell, eat me.

unlike a disappointing marriage, disappointing motherhood cannot be terminated by divorce.