... survival is the least of my desires.

For 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.

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

Two or three things I know for sure, and one of them is the way you can both hate and love something you are not sure you understand.

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.

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

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