That was what gospel was meant to do - make you hate and love yourself at the same time, make you ashamed and glorified.
Dorothy AllisonBehind my carefully buttoned collar is my nakedness, the struggle to find clean clothes, food, meaning, and money. Behind sex is rage, behind anger is love, behind this moment is silence, years of silence.
Dorothy AllisonI'll tell you the secret. When you begin with a character, you want to begin by creating a villain.
Dorothy AllisonFor years and years, I convinced myself that I was unbreakable, an animal with an animal strength or something not human at all. Me, I told people, I take damage like a wall, a brick wall that never falls down, never feels anything, never flinches or remembers. I am one woman but I carry in my body all the stories I have ever been told, women I have known, women who have taken damage until they tell themselves they can feel no pain at all.
Dorothy Allison