In my time and neighborhood (and in my soul) there was only one standard by which a woman measured success: did some man want her?

In their sympathies, children feel nearer animals than adults. They frolic with animals, caress them, share with them feelings neither has words for. Have they ever stroked any adult with the love they bestow on a cat? Hugged any grownup with the ecstasy they feel when clasping a puppy?

You make what seems a simple choice: choose a man or a job or a neighborhood- and what you have chosen is not a man or a job or a neighborhood, but a life.

People who keep journals have life twice

At fourteen you don't need sickness or death for tragedy.

A religious awakening which does not awaken the sleeper to love has roused him in vain.

A good time for laughing is when you can.