The myth that everyone once read great literature is just a myth.

Love was like a steamroller. There was no avoiding it; it went over you and you came out flat.

A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.

Moira was like an elevator with open sides. She made us dizzy.

I have always known that there were spellbinding evil parts for women. For one thing, I was taken at an early age to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Never mind the Protestant work ethic of the dwarfs. Never mind the tedious housework-is-virtuous motif. Never mind the fact that Snow White is a vampire -- anyone who lies in a glass coffin without decaying and then comes to life again must be. The truth is that I was paralysed by the scene in which the evil queen drinks the magic potion and changes her shape. What power, what untold possibilities!

This above all, to refuse to be a victim.

I am afraid of falling into hopeless despair, over my wasted life, and I am still not sure how it happened.