Nancy Friday

“Sexuality is a private matter; it is in the soul of a man or a woman.”

“When I stopped seeing my mother with the eyes of a child, I saw the woman who helped me give birth to myself.”

“Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans.”

“We are all in the private room of our minds, starving for the touch of another mind.”

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.”

“Jealousy is the fear of comparison.”

“It is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us, but images of the past embodied in language.”

“Children reinvent your world for you.”

“What was unspeakable has to be said. What was unspoken has to be told.”

“The desire to be and have a good mother is a primal need, as normal as the need for air, warmth, and food.”

“We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream.”

“For the first time I was seeing the possibilities of fantasy, not just as an escape, but as a way of exploring myself.”

“The world is a terrifying place, and there are no magical aids.”

“We are imaginary creatures, you and I, sir.”