“Why oh why, I thought, are we British brought up to not show emotions? Stiff upper lip and all that. Right now I could have done with the Wailing Wall – all to myself.”

“When she was one, Snoopy lost his nose. Her first words were ‘no nose’ as she held Snoopy up for us to see his injury – which was swiftly repaired with cotton and needle. Later, when she broke her wrist, he accompanied her to the operating theatre. She ended up with plaster of paris from palm to armpit, poor child. So did Snoopy – he emerged with his left paw plastered!”

“You can live your whole life in your brain and not experience what's around you. You go crazy that way. That's why I have to watch myself when I get isolated for too long.”

“I have never beenSo insulted in all my lifeI could swallow the seasTo wash down all this prideFirst you run like a foolJust to be at my sideAnd now you run like a foolBut you just run to hide.”

“I only write when I'm angry or sad, so because that's when I just have to write... If I'm having a good time and I'm happy and things are going really well, why would I want to stop what I'm doing to go and write at the piano?”

“What am I supposed to do? List it beforehand? 'Oh, just a moment, Sir. could you please remove your mouth from my breasticle so I can impress upon you the knowledge of my innocence'? I mean, really!" ~Ace Stanning”

“Just because I’ve been gone from this country for most of my life doesn’t mean I understand it any less. When I was fifteen I left Jamaica. I knew that I was a lesbian then and, because of what I looked like, I was an out lesbian. It was hard for me. It was hard for the thirteen years I was in England, for various reasons, and it’s going to be difficult here as well. I don’t anticipate anything being easy. But I’d rather suffer the chance of someone accosting me for being a dyke than suffer the emotional violence I’d do to myself if I wasn’t honest about who I am.”