No. I don't want to need anybody. I want someone to need me ... I want someone to need me.

Look at everything as though you are seeing it for the first time.

I can never give a 'yes' or a 'no.' I don't believe everything in life can be settled by a monosyllable.

Yes, when I get big and have my own home, no plush chairs and lace curtains for me. And no rubber plants. I'll have a desk like this in my parlor and white walls and a clean green blotter every Saturday night and a row of shining yellow pencils always sharpened for writing and a golden-brown bowl with a flower or some leaves or berries always in it and books . . . books . . . books. . . .

She had become accustomed to being lonely. She was used to walking alone and to being considered 'different.' She did not suffer too much.

'Dear God,' she prayed, 'let me be something every minute of every hour of my life.'

You won't die, Francie. You were born to lick this rotten life.