Change, when it comes, cracks everything open.

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

I think I would have died if there hadn't been the women's movement. It gave me a vision that I could do something different, and it gave me an understanding that I wasn't a monster, or sport, or a betrayer of my family.

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.

Teenagers are free verse walking around on two legs.

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.

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