All I cared about that summer were suntans, beaches, boys and booze.

— Shannon Celebi

Amber Roman had told me to that our third grade teacher, Ms. Lizette, was really a lesbian, which I thought was a disease until I asked Amber and Amber told me to ask her mother who told me to ask my mother, who said, “Lesbians are women who like to have sex with other women,” which I didn’t think was all that weird.

— Shannon Celebi

A woman brings so much more to the world than birth, for she can birth discovery, intelligence, invention, art, just as well as any man.

— Shannon Celebi

Because I can count on one hand the men who’ve loved me, not in the Biblical sense—I don’t have enough digits for that—but who have truly loved me.

— Shannon Celebi

Don’t worry if you fall, sweet girl. Youth is made for bruises.

— Shannon Celebi

Here’s a random factoid: I like cats. And here’s another: I like red wine.

— Shannon Celebi

Her mother always told her, “If he hits you, then you leave,” but Jack had never hit her, not with his fists.

— Shannon Celebi

I am forever an advocate of books, both the reading of them and the writing. There is something sacred to me in that community. Because writing--and reading--is a solitary business. And it’s good to know I’m not alone.

— Shannon Celebi

I could say it all began with my mother.

— Shannon Celebi

If she could hate this much she sure as hell had loved.

— Shannon Celebi