Each Time He Suggested They Get Married,

All Over The World, Girls Are Raised To Be Make Themselves Likeable, To Twist Themselves Into Shapes That Suit Other People. Please Do Not Twist Yourself Into Shapes To Please. Don't Do It. If Someone Likes That Version Of You, That Version Of You That Is False And Holds Back, Then They Actually Just Like That Twisted Shape, And Not You. And The World Is Such A Gloriously Multifaceted, Diverse Place That There Are People In The World Who Will Like You, The Real You, As You Are.

When It Comes To Dressing Well, American Culture Is So Self-fulfilled That It Has Not Only Disregarded This Courtesy Of Self-presentation, But Has Turned That Disregard Into A Virtue. "we Are Too Superior/busy/cool/not-uptight To Bother About How We Look To Other People, And So We Can Wear Pajamas To School And Underwear To The Mall.

I Am A Person Who Believes In Asking Questions, In Not Conforming For The Sake Of Conforming. I Am Deeply Dissatisfied - About So Many Things, About Injustice, About The Way The World Works - And In Some Ways, My Dissatisfaction Drives My Storytelling.

Power Is The Ability Not Just To Tell The Story Of Another Person, But To Make It The Definitive Story Of That Person.

I Am Drawn, As A Reader, To Detail-drenched Stories About Human Lives Affected As Much By The Internal As By The External, The Kind Of Fiction That Jane Smiley Nicely Describes As 'first And Foremost About How Individuals Fit, Or Don't Fit, Into Their Social Worlds.'