All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.

I love myself when I am laughing.

It is a curious thing to be a woman in the Caribbean after you have been a woman in these United States.

My head was full of misty fumes of doubt.

A thing is mighty big when time and distance cannot shrink it.

Such as I am, I am a precious gift.

She had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it found her.