Keeping a journal implies hope.

If you apologize for something that isn't your fault in the first place, you, in effect, confirm their belief that it is your fault.

Throughout much of history, women writers have capitulated to male standards, and have paid too much heed to what Virginia Woolf calls "the angel in the house." She is that little ghost who sits on one's shoulder while one writes and whispers, "Be nice, don't say anything that will embarrass the family, don't say anything your man will disapprove of ..." [ellipsis in original] The "angel in the house" castrates one's creativity because it deprives one of essential honesty, and many women writers have yet to win the freedom to be honest with themselves.

Harriet van Horne He makes love to me expertly, mechanically, coldly... He's pressing all my buttons, as if I were a pocket calculator.

Blocks usually stem from fear of being judged. If you imagine the world is listening, you'll never write a line.

I knew I was in England by the smell.

A baby's mother also needs a mother.