“The pinup girl, Betty Grable, sprayed her bare butt and breasts with hairspray until they were wet. That way the top and bottom of her swimsuitstayed glued where she wanted. Hairspray inside your high heels works the same way.”

“Her mom and dad are both doctors and want her to follow her dream, not turn out the way they have, no matter how much it costs them.”

“It's just such a big commitment," Brandy says, "being a girl, you know. Forever."Taking the hormones. For the rest of her life. The pills, the patches, the injections, for the rest of her life. And what if there wassomeone, just one person who would love her, who could make her life happy, just the way she was, without the hormones and make-up and the clothes and shoes and surgery? She has to at least look around the world a little.”

“Big Brother fills us all with the same crap. My guess is he was clever the same way everybody thinks they're clever. I tell her to type in 'password”

“I know that when a supersexy older girl with hips and breasts and nice hair wants to take off your glasses and to paint you a smoky eye she's merely trying to enroll you in a beauty contest she's already won. It's a kind of slummy, condescending gesture, like when rich people ask poor people where they summer. To me, this smacks of a blatant, insensitive "let them eat cake" type of chauvinism.”

“Her haunting me. The way a song stays in your head. The way you think life should be. How anything holds yourattention. How your past goes with you into every day of your future.”

“Her voice makes me think of her mouth makes me think of her breath makes me think of her breasts.”