“Modernity consists in a revolt against the prevailing style, an unyielding rage against the official order.”

“There's no rage like old lady rage, just as there's no tenderness like old lady tenderness.”

“He had heard her say, so many times, that a society that approved of making abortion illegal was a society that approved of violence against women; that making abortion illegal was simply a sanctimonious, self-righteous form of violence against women- it was just another way of legalizing violence against women, Nurse Caroline would say.”

“Who do you seewhen you think of you?Are you an outsider,Cool, distant, angry,swimming against the current,or are you in the flow?When they tell you,This is who you are,do you say yes or no?Who do you seewhen you look beyondthe skin and the surface,when you drift to sleep,when you are the personno one else knows? Whoare you on the inside?Don't answer these questions.Not yet. First, open your eyes,your mind, your heart.See.”

“Such was the Arab of the desert, the dweller in tents, in whom was fulfilled the prophetic destiny of his ancestor Ishmael. "He will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him." Nature had fitted him for his destiny. His form was light and meagre, but sinewy and active, and capable of sustaining great fatigue and hardship. He was temperate and even abstemious, requiring but little food, and that of the simplest kind. His mind, like his body, was light and agile. He eminently possessed the intellectual attributes of the Shemitic race, penetrating sagacity, subtle wit, a ready conception, and a brilliant imagination. His sensibilities were quick and acute, though not lasting; a proud and daring spirit was stamped on his sallow visage and flashed from his dark and kindling eye. He was easily aroused by the appeals of eloquence, and charmed by the graces of poetry. Speaking a language copious in the extreme, the words of which have been compared to gems and flowers, he was naturally an orator; but he delighted in proverbs and apothegms, rather than in sustained flights of declamation, and was prone to convey his ideas in the oriental style, by apologue and parable.”

“No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen...You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move.”

“We often need to lose sight of our priorities in order to see them.”