Once we give up searching for approval we often find it easier to earn respect.

At my age, in this still hierarchical time, people often ask me if I’m “passing the torch.” I explain that I’m keeping my torch, thank you very much-and I’m using it to light the torches of others.

the less powerful group usually knows the powerful one much better than vice versa - blacks have had to understand whites in order to survive, women have had to know men - yet the powerful group can afford to regard the less powerful one as a mystery.

I can't mate in captivity.

My father was the Jewish half of the family, yet it was my mother who taught me to have pride in that tradition.

The same big TV antenna dwarfed each roof, as though life here could only be bearable if lived elsewhere in the imagination.

Transformation happens in small groups. Each person can speak and all listen.