“She appeared to be ageless the type that would continue, unchanging, until she was an old woman when she would suddenly become senile and die”

“There was a pretty young woman I used to see pegging out sheets and I worried that she would grow old there and that no one would know how beautiful she was. And maybe she would die without ever having really lived.”

“Every woman is a gift when she becomes a daughter, Every woman is beautiful when she becomes a lover, Every woman is special when she becomes a wife, Every woman is a god when she becomes a Mother”

“She would have thought a woman would have died of shame. Instead of which, the shame died.”

“This woman is beautiful and clever: but how much cleverer she would have become if she were not beautiful!”

“If a woman could take care of herself, would she still need a man? Would she even want one? And if she didn't want a man, what kind of woman would she be? Would she even be a woman? Because it seemed if you were a woman, the only thing you were really supposed to want was a man.”