I fell into shame like a suicide throws herself into a river. (253)

I did things I did not understand for reasons I could not begin to explain just to be in motion, to be trying to do something, change something in a world I wanted desperately to make over but could not imagine for myself.

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

stories are the one sure way I know to touch the heart and change the world.

... survival is the least of my desires.

The only magic we have is what we make in ourselves, the muscles we build up on the inside, the sense of belief we create from nothing.

fiction is the great lie that tells the truth