There is a fearful splendor in absolute desolation.

If you're treated a certain way you become a certain kind of person. If certain things are described to you as being real they're real for you whether they're real or not.

Being in the pulpit, was like being in the theatre; I was behind the scenes and knew how the illusion worked.

There is something terribly radical about believing that one's own experience and images are important enough to speak about, much less to write about and to perform

In order to have a conversation with someone you must reveal yourself.

It is a very grave matter to be forced to imitate a people for whom you know-which is the price of your performance and survival-you do not exist. It is hard to imitate a people whose existence appears, mainly, to be made tolerable by their bottomless gratitude that they are not, thank heaven, you.

Nakedness has no color: this can come as news only to those who have never covered, or been covered by, another naked human being.