"my body has conditioned things, to some extent. the life of an attractive woman is different than that of a plain one. my hair, my eyes, the shape of my mouth, the contours of breast and thigh have all contributed. the brain may be independent, but personality is not; when i was eight years old i realized that people considered me pretty -- from the moment onwards a course was set. intellgence made me one kind of being; intelligence allied to good looks made me another. this is self-assesment, not complacency."

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"giving presents is one of the most possessive things we do, did you realize that? it's the way we keep a hold on other people. plant ourselves in their lives."

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"i shall take a building. a building shaped like a cross, furnished neither for habitation or defence. i shall multiply this building by a thousand, by ten thousand, by a hundred thousand... the walls and furnishings of this building tell stories; they talk of kings and queens and angels and devils; they instruct and they threaten. they are intended to uplift and to terrify. they are an argument made manifest.

what i am trying to demonstrate at this point is the amazing legacy of god -- or the possibility of god -- by way not of ideas but of manipulation of the landscape. churches have always seemed to me almost irrefutable evidence. they make me wonder if -- just possibly -- i might be wrong. which is how i came once to pray."
-penelope lively, moon tiger-