I'll Tell You The Secret.

I Was No Cherokee. I Was No Warrior. I Was Nobody Special. I Was Just A Girl, Scared And Angry. When I Saw Myself In Daddy Glen's Eyes, I Wanted To Die. No, I Wanted To Be Already Dead, Cold And Gone. Everything Felt Hopeless. He Looked At Me And I Was Ashamed Of Myself. It Was Like Sliding Down An Endless Hole, Seeing Myself At The Bottom, Dirty, Ragged, Poor, Stupid.

I Have Wanted Everything As A Writer And A Woman, But Most Of All A World Changed Utterly By My Revelations.

... Survival Is The Least Of My Desires.

Stories Are The One Sure Way I Know To Touch The Heart And Change The World.

I Wanted To Start Over Completely, To Begin Again As New People With Nothing Of The Past Left Over. I Wanted To Run Away From Who We Had Been Seen To Be, Who We Had Been... It's The First Thing I Think Of When Trouble Comes - The Geographic Solution. Change Your Name, Leave Town, Disappear, Make Yourself Over. What Hides Behind That Impulse Is The Conviction That The Life You Have Lived, The Person You Are, Is Valueless, Better Off Abandoned, That Running Away Is Easier Than Trying To Change Things, That Change Itself Is Not Possible.