Don’t think for a minute that bad publicity and endless criticism don’t leave their claw marks on everyone concerned. Your friends try to cheer you up by saying lightly, “I suppose you get used to...

He always called me Daughter. It was to distinguish me from his sister Ava. I loved being called Daughter. It sounded so possessive, and to be possessed when you are a child is just a...

Go fuck yourself,” I replied, always the lady. “I’m staying here.

I’m here to tell you, there ain’t much forgiveness in that old-time religion. That particular savior was a mean son of a bitch. If you sinned, honey, he was going to get you, no doubt...

And I won ’em back fair and square. So what are you going to do about it? Want to fight? Who wants the first bloody nose?

And the news got worse. It appeared that there was this whole other person Jesus Christ whose birthday a lot of people tended to confuse with mine. I was personally outraged. It was a long...

Great idea,” I said. “Call the police. Call the fucking police.

He will always be my Sir Galahad.

Then, aided by the booze, like a fool I tossed off one of those throwaway lines that would have been better thrown away. “Ah, Frank! I thought you were going to be down here fucking...

When you have to face up to the fact that marriage to the man you love is really over, that’s very tough, sheer agony. In that kind of harrowing situation, I always go away and...

Sex isn’t all that important, but it is when you love someone very much.

God knows I’ve got so many frailties myself, I ought to be able to understand and forgive them in others. But I don’t.

Maybe, in the final analysis, they saw me as something I wasn’t and I tried to turn them into something they could never be. I loved them all but maybe I never understood any of...

So this was where lust was satisfied. If I’d been an old-time miner I’d have asked for my gold nugget back.