Her eyes watered and she was a foot taller than any of her sisters, mostly because of the length of her neck which would one day hang from the end of a rope

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

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.

My change from girl to boy was far less dramatic than the distance anybody travels from infancy to adulthood.

It was possible to feel superior to other people and feel like a misfit at the same time.

All wisdom ends in paradox.

That’s how people live, by telling stories. What’s the first thing a kid says when he learns how to talk? “Tell me a story.” That’s how we understand who we are, where we come from. Stories are everything.