“As a woman ravaged by intense pain and the loss of virtually all my life’s goals, I have been transformed by suffering and love. And brought to a higher place.”

“I lead a life of contradiction. I’ve experienced horrific pain, a non-caring medical system, and total loss of the career I felt I was born for. Yet I feel completely blessed.”

“It all began with dreams that did not come true.”

“Have you ever been to a place you're supposed to love, but all you can think about is home?”

“My poem must expurgate my manhoodunveil the animality of the best of my being,reveal both the monster behind the friendly smileand the humanity of my most evil deeds;I shall undress the species to its pure nudity,relegate our vanity to the dustbin of time;I shall tell a new story.”

“Tucker strokes my hair. There's something so tender about the gesture. It might as well have been him whispering I love you.”

“She misunderstood my method, in my opinion, not realizing that my approach, rather obscure to those unfamiliar, was based on the idea that in my struggle with reality, I could exhaust any opponent with whom I was grappling, like one can wear out an olive, for example, before successfully stabbing it with a fork, and that my propensity not to hasten matters, far from having a negative effect, in fact prepared for me a fertile ground where, when things seemed ripe, I could make my move with ease.”