#differences

"There are people who are generic. They make generic responses and they expect generic answers. They live inside a box and they think people who don't fit into their box are weird. But I'll tell you what, generic people are the weird people. They are like genetically-manipulated plants growing inside a laboratory, like indistinguishable faces, like droids. Like ignorance."

"As I saw it, all my mother's life, my father held her down, like lead strapped to her ankles.She wasbuoyant by nature;she wanted to travel,go to the theater, go to museums.What he wantedwas to lie on the couchwith the Timesover his face,so that death, when it came,wouldn't seem a significant change."

"In a general sense, I admit to valuing the worldviews of men under the age of 40 and women over the age of 30."

"We were very different, and we disagreed about a lot of things, but he was always so interesting, you know?"

"Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people."

"To become a true global citizen, one must abandon all notions of 'otherness' and instead embrace 'togetherness'."

"I was drawn to horses as if they were magnets. It was in my blood. I must have inherited from my grandfather a genetic proclivity toward the equine species. Perhaps there's a quirk in the DNA that makes horse people different from everyone else, that instantly divides humanity into those who love horses and the others, who simply don't know."

"Everyone has a sense of humor. If you don't laugh at jokes, you probably laugh at opinions."

"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."