It wasn't possible just to rid oneself, simply, of the norms through which one is constituted.

Gender is not something that one is, it is something one does, an act… a doing rather than a being.

Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed.

We lose ourselves in what we read, only to return to ourselves, transformed and part of a more expansive world.

Possibility is not a luxury; it is as crucial as bread.

There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender... identity is performatively constituted by the very 'expressions' that are said to be its results.

We form ourselves within the vocabularies that we did not choose, and sometimes we have to reject those vocabularies, or actively develop new ones.

All of us, as bodies, are in the active position of figuring out how to live with and against the constructions - or norms - that help to form us.

To operate within the matrix of power is not the same as to replicate uncritically relations of domination.

As we interpret ourselves differently, we also live ourselves differently.

Gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original; in fact, it is a kind of imitation that produces the very notion of the original as an effect and consequence of the imitation itself.

Two things a wise man never discloses to the public

I was in my thirteenth year when I heard a voice from God to help me govern my conduct. And the first time I was very much afraid.

Prohibition cannot be enforced for the simple reason that the majority of American people do not want it enforced and are resisting its enforcement.

We had punks literally protesting Fugazi. I respect a boycott. I respect a conscionable boycott, but of all bands to boycott? Fight crime. If you really want to get out there, go fight crime.

When I'm an old lady, I'm going to have my pick of the young men. They'll be like, 'She's Miss Mary Jane!' The young boys will think I'm a hot old lady.

I really hate being self-conscious—and being conscious of being self-conscious

Have I missed a national holiday? There must be celebrations in the streets for you to be home at this hour of the day." "I'm calling it Summerset Goes Mute Day. The city's gone mad with joy.

Isn't it true that it's not people who meet, but rather the shadows cast by their imaginations?

And the only studies were - Rodney Dangerfield was my mentor and he was my Yale drama school for comedy.

I love to spend money.