“Being born a woman is an awful tragedy. Yes, my consuming desire to
mingle with road crews, sailors and soldiers, bar room regulars—to
be a part of a scene, anonymous, listening, recording—all is spoiled
by the fact that I am a girl, a female always in danger of assault and
battery. My consuming interest in men and their lives is often
misconstrued as a desire to seduce them, or as an invitation to
intimacy. Yet, God, I want to talk to everybody I can as deeply as I
can. I want to be able to sleep in an open field, to travel west, to
walk freely at night.”