Then the question began to live under my blankets: How did lesbianism begin? What were the symptoms? The public library gave information on the finished lesbian--and that woefully sketchy--but on the growth of a lesbian, there was nothing. I did discover that the difference between hermaphrodites and lesbians was that hermaphrodites were "born that way." It was impossible to determine whether lesbians budded gradually, or burst into being with a suddenness that dismayed them as much as it repelled society.

Y’all dropped the ball and you should be shamed.

A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent.

You don't need another person, place or thing to make you whole. God already did that. Your job is to know it.

Oh, the holiness of being the injured party.

I always felt, if I can get to a library, I'll be OK.

You are the sum total of everything you've seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot- it's all right there.