A small girl became increasingly paralysed by her parents' frequently violent rows. Sometimes she would spend hours standing completely still in the toilet, simply because that was where she happened to be when the fight began. Finally, in moments of calm, she would take bottles of milk from the fridge or doorstep and leave them in places where she may later become trapped. Her parents were unable to understand why they found bottles of sour milk in every room in the house.

You get mixed messages because I have mixed feelings.

Your hair is an act of God.

Death is my lover and he wants to move in.

It is myself I have never met whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind

To create something beautiful about despair or out of a feeling of despair is for me the most hopeful life affirming thing a person can do

Please. Don’t switch off my mind by attempting to straighten me out. Listen and understand, and when you feel contempt don’t express it, at least not verbally, at least not to me.