Quote

I grew up in an era where you had to find your own way as a woman. When I was a kid, there was this whole physical and emotional neatness and purity that a woman was supposed to have, and I didn't fit into that.

Growing up with the childhood that I had, I learned to never let a man make me feel helpless, and it also embedded a deep need in me to always stick up for women.

I found the right man, got married, and just had to keep not reinventing myself, just deciding that it doesn't matter what you are if you are a good person.

My greatest environments in which I can grow, or grow up, is in personal romantic relationships with a man.

In my marriages, I'd lost parts of who I was because I was trying to mold myself into what I thought a man wanted me to be.

Many women my age have known the experience of giving up crucial parts of themselves to please the man they love.

When I was in my 20s, I wanted to be tough. I discovered that I didn't want to be the woman I was raised to be - a good, traditional wife. When I went out in the world to find a husband, I found that husbands weren't ready to accept the kind of woman I was going to be.

I feel very grateful that I have never had to be or ever chosen to be or accidentally found myself to be in the space of the other woman.

My goal was to be able to be alone without food, sugar, phone, men, TV, anything and to feel O.K. about myself.