Women are dirt searchers; their greatest worth is irradicating rings on collars and tables. Never mind real-estate boards' corruption and racism, here's your soapsuds. Everything she is doing is peripheral, expendable, crucial, and non-negotiable. Cleanliness is next to godliness.

Unless you are political or intellectual, events like the Depression are seen as personal events. We thought of the Depression as something that made the pipes freeze; we thought it hit us because Daddy didn't move his taxi stand and because he broke his hip. It was only later I found out it was a national phenomenon.

Oppressed people are frequendy very oppressive when first liberated. And why wouldn't they be? They know best two positions. Somebody's foot on their neck or their foot on somebody's neck.

I never stop to wonder why I'm not like other people. They mystery to me is why more people aren't like me.

Freedom is like taking a bath: You got to keep doing it every day.

Prostitutes don't sell their bodies, they rent their bodies. Housewives sell their bodies when they get married.

When a system of oppression has become institutionaliz ed it is unnecessary for individuals to be oppressive