I don't believe that there is any true friendship without a bond of honor, and the honor in friendship is the respect you give the other that she also gives you.

One of the strengths I derive from my class background is that I am accustomed to contempt.

If I could have found what I needed at thirteen, I would not have lost so much of my life chasing vindication or death. Give some child, some thirteen-year old, the hope of the remade life. Tell the truth. Write the story that you were always afraid to tell. I swear to you there is magic in it.

Two or three things I know, two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is that to go on living I have to tell stories, that stories are the one sure way I know to touch the heart and change the world

Why write stories? To join the conversation.

... survival is the least of my desires.

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.