The fact that educated white women automatically assume that we have similar backgrounds annoys me. We don't. I feel like I'm in a certain kind of drag.

I can say now is that sneaking up on people is a major delight in my old age, but it always has been. A desire, even a need, to shock.

I don't believe anyone can go through the prison experience without being changed by it. The experience becomes part of your identity forever.

My published works are concrete evidence that I exist.

I couldn't stand living in a society that admires the emperor's new clothes, when I see so clearly that he is naked.

I had a naïve idea that if I could tell the story, people would be outraged and do something about conditions in the jails.

The fact that educated white women automatically assume that we have similar backgrounds annoys me. We don't. I feel like I'm in a certain kind of drag.