To operate within the matrix of power is not the same as to replicate uncritically relations of domination.

Gender is not something that one is, it is something one does, an act… a doing rather than a being.

Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed.

We lose ourselves in what we read, only to return to ourselves, transformed and part of a more expansive world.

Possibility is not a luxury; it is as crucial as bread.

There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender... identity is performatively constituted by the very 'expressions' that are said to be its results.

We form ourselves within the vocabularies that we did not choose, and sometimes we have to reject those vocabularies, or actively develop new ones.

All of us, as bodies, are in the active position of figuring out how to live with and against the constructions - or norms - that help to form us.

As we interpret ourselves differently, we also live ourselves differently.

Gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original; in fact, it is a kind of imitation that produces the very notion of the original as an effect and consequence of the imitation itself.

We act and walk and speak and talk in ways that consolidate an impression of being a man or being a woman.

We forgive so long as we love.

But if you read Jane Austen, you know that she had a wicked sense of humor. Not only was she funny, but her early writing was very dark and had a gothic tone to it.

Flying in space is a privilege, whether it's the first time or the fourth time.

When I was a kid I joined the circus. I did that. It is true. But it's not like you think. There was a guy, he had his own circus. His name was Carol Jacobs and he owned it. It was a small thing.

I have never encountered a winner that held hate towards something.

Power travels in the bloodlines, handed out before birth.

And so I was very grateful that I didn't do the British stiff upper lip, but I went straight to a therapist. And she was wonderful and helpful, and I went for about two years.

To hell with being ashamed of what you liked.

We had a lot in common. I loved him and he loved him.