"My mother was a dominant force in my life. She had a very specific idea about education, which was: you should know everything about everything. It was quite simple. There was no exclusivity, and there really was no judgment."

"Judgment is not my business. Existing is my business."

"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home."

"My mother was the first woman in the county in Indiana where we were born, in Jay County, to have a college degree. She was educated as a pianist and she wanted to concertize, but when the war came she was married, had a family, so she started teaching."

"I enjoyed studying costume, learning about the corsetry and the historical context of fashion. I never had any real intention of being a costume designer."

"As in geology, so in social institutions, we may discover the causes of all past changes in the present invariable order of society."

"The dark shadow we seem to see in the distance is not really a mountain ahead, but the shadow of the mountain behind - a shadow from the past thrown forward into our future. It is a dark sludge of historical sectarianism. We can leave it behind us if we wish."

"I was determined to achieve the total freedom that our history lessons taught us we were entitled to, no matter what the sacrifice."