Nothing could be taken for granted. Women who loved you tried to cut your throat, while women who didn't even know your name scrubbed your back. Witches could sound like Katharine Hepburn and your best friend could try to strangle you. Smack in the middle of an orchid there might be a blob of jello and inside a Mickey Mouse doll, a fixed and radiant star.

We read about how Ajax and Achilles will die for each other, but very little about the friendship of women.

if they put an iron circle around your neck I will bite it away

Beginning 'Beloved' with numerals rather than spelled out numbers, it was my intention to give the house an identity separate from the street or even the city.

All important things are hard.

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.

And I am all the things I have ever loved: scuppernong wine, cool baptisms in silent water, dream books and number playing.