I put on the page a third look at what I've seen in life - the reinvented experience of a cross-eyed working-class lesbian, addicted to violence, language and hope, who has made the decision to live, is determined to live, on the page and on the street, for me and mine.

I was no Cherokee. I was no warrior. I was nobody special. I was just a girl, scared and angry. When I saw myself in Daddy Glen's eyes, I wanted to die. No, I wanted to be already dead, cold and gone. Everything felt hopeless. He looked at me and I was ashamed of myself. It was like sliding down an endless hole, seeing myself at the bottom, dirty, ragged, poor, stupid.

It's important to set challenges that you're not sure you're equal to.

fiction is the great lie that tells the truth

Babies change things, open doors you thought were shut, close others. Make you into something you never been.

I think I would have died if there hadn't been the women's movement.

she got a reputation for an easy smile and a sharp tongue, and using one to balance the other, she seemed friendly but distant