Asked why they wanted to fight, the young women said they enjoyed it, just as some men and boys do.

When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing.

Only a lunatic would want to be president. These lunatics are created deliberately by those who wish to be presided over.

Training of female athletes is so new that the limits of female possibility are still unknown.

Giving Papa time to think, as Arty put it, was like pumping random rounds into a fireworks factory. The odds favored dramatic results.

And while national military forces have historically resisted the full participation of women soldiers, female talent has found plenty of scope in revolutionary and terrorist groups around the planet.

I am here, come closer," the old donkey said with her eyes. "I will mother you.