“Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact—it is silence which isolates.”

“Lead us toward a speech, which is as beautiful as silence, and toward a silence, which is as beautiful as the sweetest and truest of words. (119)”

“Words move, music movesOnly in time; but that which is only livingCan only die. Words, after speech, reachInto the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,Can words or music reachThe stillness...”

“Even speech was for them was a debased form of silence; how much more futile is poetry which is a debased form of speech.”

“It is well, when in difficulties, to say never a word, neither black nor white. Speech is silver but silence is golden.”

“My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences.”