“I marvel again at the nakedness of men's lives: the showers right out in the open, the body exposed for inspection and comparison, the public display of privates. What is it for? What purposes of reassurance does it serve? The flashing of a badge, look, everyone, all is in order, I belong here. Why don't women have to prove to one another that they are women? Some form of unbuttoning, some split-crotch routine, just as casual. A doglike sniffing.”

“Why do men want to kill the bodies of other men? Women don't want to kill the bodies of other women, by and large. As far as we know.Here are some traditional reasons: Loot. Territory. Lust for power. Hormones. Adrenaline high. Rage. God. Flag. Honor. Righteous anger. Revenge. Oppression. Slavery. Starvation. Defense of one's life. Love; or, a desire to protect the women and children. From what? From the bodies of other men.What men are most afraid of is not lions, not snakes, not the dark, not women. Not any more. What men are most afraid of is the body of another man.Men's bodies are the most dangerous thing on earth.”

“Why does he feel the need to write one woman off because he has the superficial need for another's unique trait? We are the ultimate Russian Dolls. Keep twisting us open and - voila! Another. Then another. Some men just don't have the patience, or the skill, to discover what they're missing.”

“Male dominance in society always means that out of public sight, in the private, ahistorical world of men with women, men are sexually dominating women.”

“No one was dancing, least of all us, because I don't dance in public. My body's a private thing; it doesn't belong to the world at large.”

“Lots of women read fiction. Most men don't. Women read fiction written by women and by men. Most men don't. If a man opens a novel,. he likes to have a masculine name on the cover; it's reassuring somehow. You never know what might happen to that external genitalia if you immerse yourself in imaginary doings concocted by someone with the goods on the inside.”