Jessamyn West

Faithfulness to the past can be a kind of death above ground. Writing of the past is a resurrection; the past then lives in your words and you are free.

In my time and neighborhood (and in my soul) there was only one standard by which a woman measured success: did some man want her?

Sleeplessness is a desert without vegetation or inhabitants.

Teaching is the royal road to learning.

Justice is a terrible but necessary thing.

If you train people properly, they won't be able to tell a drill from the real thing. If anything, the real thing will be easier.