Rita Mae Brown

The most revolutionary thing you can do is be yourself, to speak your truth, to open your arms to life, including the pain. Find your passions.

The English language, horses and hounds, and the theater are mine. I wish for you something that enlarges your life, teaches you to respect all life forms, and helps you connect to other people.

Carrie rigged me in a horrible dress full of itchy crinolines and patent leather shoes. At least Jennifer was beyond being tormented by itchy dresses. I thought I was worse off than the corpse.

Was Aunt Jenna gonna swell up like that cow and turn black and smell and get full of maggots? I couldn’t think about that, it tore my stomach right off its moorings. That’s animals, same thing doesn’t happen to people does it? That’s gonna happen to me someday too? No, not me. I ain’t dying. I don’t care what they say, I ain’t dying. I’m not lying on my back under the ground in everlasting darkness. Not me. I’m not closing my eyes. If I close my eyes, I might not open them.

Maybe all men did that after everyone went to bed so no one would know the toughness was for show. Or maybe they only did it when someone died. I wasn’t sure at all and it bothered me.

“If Molly stays in then I stay in.”

Leroy, I love you.

“Okay, Aunt Carrie, I won’t stay in the house.” He looked at me with utter defeat and guilt.

Leroy you ain’t no friend of mine.

I decided to become the funniest person in the whole school. If someone makes you laugh you have to like her. I even made my teachers laugh. It worked.

And it became increasingly clear that all Leroy and I had in common was a childhood full of ice cream, raisin boxes, and a mattress full of holes. But then I had never thought I had much in common with anybody.

But I got to get the skills first. There aren’t any women directors, so I will have a fight for sure and law, well, I know I have a good shot at it. But I’d rather make movies than talk to some sleepy jury.”

All this overt heterosexuality amused me. If they only knew. Our boyfriends thought they were God’s gift because we were sleeping with them but they were so tragically transparent that we forgave them their arrogance.