Once you are thought selfish, not only are you forgiven a life designed mainly to suit yourself, which in anyone else would appear monstrous, but if an impulse to generosity should by chance overpower you, you will get five times the credit of some poor selfless soul who has been oozing kindness for years.

one sank into the ancient sin of anomie when challenges failed.

the term 'androgyny' ... defines a condition under which the characteristics of the sexes, and the human impulses expressed by men and women, are not rigidly assigned. Androgyny seeks to liberate the individual from the confines of the appropriate.

Normal is absolutely my least favorite word.

Power is the ability to take one's place in whatever discourse is essential to action and the right to have one's part matter.

It's hard to be happy, and safe, and applauded in a miserable world.

. . . a relationship has a momentum, it must change and develop, and will tend to move toward the point of greatest commitment.