Yes, you need a passport to prove to the world that you exist. The people at passport control, they cannot look at you and see you are a person. No! They have to look at a little photograph of you. Then they believe you exist.

Whenever we got a glimpse, their faces looked indecently revealed, as though we were used to seeing women in veils.

No matter how long your've been at it, you always start from scratch.

Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling.

-Who are you, anyway? -Just someone who knows, from personal experience, how attractive it can be to think you can save somebody else by loving them.

I had a briefcase at one point, but it was a kind of 1980s New Wave briefcase. It was made of some kind of cardboard and it had metal hinges. It was kind of faux industrial looking, and I used to carry my books in it rather than a backpack. I didn't want to have normal student accoutrements.

Capitalism has resulted in material well-being but spiritual bankruptcy.