I did not begin with craft, I began with strong feelings and worked toward craft.

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

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

Women lose their lives not knowing they can do something different...I claimed myself and remade my life. Only when I knew I belonged to myself completely did I become capable of giving myself to another, of finding joy in desire, pleasure in our love, power in this body no one else owns.

Beauty, my first girlfriend said to me, is that inner quality often associated with great amounts of leisure time.

Behind 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.

Don't go taking that gospel stuff seriously. It's nice to clean you out now and then, but it ain't for real. It's like bad whiskey. Run through you fast and leave you with pain.