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1 " this is how you smile to someone you don't like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don't like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don't know you very well, and this way they won't recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; "
― Jamaica Kincaid , At the Bottom of the River
2 " The night-soil men can see a bird walking in trees. It isn't a bird. It is a woman who has removed her skin and is on her way to drink the blood of her secret enemies. It is a woman who has left her skin i a corner of a house made out of wood. It is a woman who is reasonable and admires honeybees in the hibiscus. "
3 " Looking at the horizon again, I saw a lone figure coming toward me, but I wasn't frightened because I was sure it was my mother. As I got closer to the figure, I could see that it wasn't my mother, but still I wasn't frightened because I could see that it was a woman. "
4 " I shall grow up to be a tall, graceful, and altogether beautiful woman, and I shall impose on large numbers of people my will and also, for my own amusement, great pain. "
5 " Is life, then, a violent burst of light, like flint struck sharply in the dark? "
6 " Contempla la bellezza nelle cose semplici: il sole che sorge da quell'immensa, scintillante distesa d'acqua che è il mare; sorge ogni giorno in modo nuovo, come fosse la prima volta. <> dice nel suo cuore, perchè sente la fresca brezza sulla nuca. Ma più volte sente l'inutilità di tutto ciò, perchè davanti a lui si stende un silenzio spaventoso, una vastità, dalla lunghezza e larghezza e profondità incommensurabili. Il nulla "
