“We are a noisy and blessed little family”

“[Children] just cannot be sad too long, it is not in them, as children mourn in little bits here and there like patchwork in their lives.”

“Mama said it's probably because of Suzanne, and that you are never the same after a child dies. That made me wonder what she was like before Clover died, because I don't think I really knew my own ...”

“We have talked about Suzy and about her last days, but it's as if our lives stopped then and there. If I say anything to him about feeling lonesome, he goes outside and does some little chore. I ca...”

“It seems as if I can only thing if I write my journal, it just connects the part of my head that is busy doing things with the part that is busy thinking about everything else. I know all these pep...”

“The best thing a girl can be is a good wife and mother. It is a girl's highest calling. I hope I am ready.”

“I've been quite happy. Look, here are my proofs. Remember that I am indifferent to discomforts which would harass other folk. What do the circumstances of life matter if your dreams make you lord p...”

“The bond (of marriage) became the bondage itself”

“If you find God, you shall be free forever.”

“Trauma is personal. It does not disappear if it is not validated. When it is ignored or invalidated the silent screams continue internally heard only by the one held captive. When someone enters th...”

“Not by prayers alone will a captive be freed, but by another mans prayers matched by his deeds.”

“Sometimes I hate him. When he does the dishes, he shakes off each one before setting it in the drying rack. Water flies everywhere. A couple of drops always hit me in the face. I have to leave the ...”

“You're captives of a civilizational system that more or less compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live. You are captivesand you have made a captive of the world itself. That's wha...”

“But on Kwajalein, the guards sought to deprive them of something that had sustained them even as all else had been lost: dignity. This self-respect and sense of self-worth, the innermost armament o...”

“Please wake me when I'm freeI cannot bear captivity4 I would rather be stricken blindThan 2 live without expression of mind”