I like to think of what happens to characters in good novels and stories as knots--things keep knotting up. And by the end of the story--readers see an unknotting of sorts. Not what you expect, not the easy answers you get on TV, not wash and wear philosophies, but a reproduction of believable, emotional experiences.

You've been killing me inside and I don't want to die like this.

At least be a nice lesbian or you're going to give the rest a bad rap.

Folks want to glow, to leave their worries and dead skin behind.

Look, as my mama always said, 'One monkey don't stop no show.

I would like to think that as a result of not just my own experiences, but at least being empathetic and compassionate about other people's experiences and plights and tragedies, that I am affected by it and learn from it.

I have a big mouth, and over the years, as the eldest of five, I have had a tendency to speak when no one really cared.