we perceive silence where, in fact, there is a muffler.

What we have in common is what keeps us apart.

Between sisters, often, the child's cry never dies down. "Never leave me," it says; "do not abandon me."

In becoming archaeologists of the world of our mothers, we are trying to retrieve the female past and to invent a future.

The illusion of companionship sits waiting in the television set. We keep our televisions on more than we watch them - an average of more than seven hours a day. For background. For company.

for many people, loneliness was an experience of time. 'Not knowing what to do with yourself' was the way it was usually put.

Humor tells you where the trouble is.