I am the only one who can tell the story of my life and say what it means.

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

Women lose their lives not knowing they can do something different..." from Two or Three Things i Know For Sure

I do not write about nice people. I am not nice people.

Write the story that you were always afraid to tell. I swear to you that there is magic in it, and if you show yourself naked for me, I'll be naked for you. It will be our covenant.

And of course these days I feel like there is a nation of us - displaced southerners and children of the working class. We listen to Steve Earle, Mary J. Blige, and k.d. lang. We devour paperback novels and tell evil mean stories, value stubbornness above patience and a sense of humor more than a college education. We claim our heritage with a full appreciation of how often it has been disdained. And let me promise you, you do not want to make us angry.

Mama learned to laugh with them, before they could laugh at her, and to do it so well no one could be sure what she really thought or felt.