Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

by Jeanette Winterson

She had a mysterious attitude towards the begetting of children; it wasn’t that she couldn’t do it, more that she didn’t want to do it. She was very bitter about the Virgin Mary getting there first.

The mother sang to the child, and stabbed the demons. She understood how jealous the Spirit is of flesh.

There are women in the world. There are men in the world. And there are beasts. What do you do if you marry a beast?

History should be a hammock for swinging and a game for playing, the way cats play. Claw it, chew it, rearrange it and at bedtime it’s still a ball of string full of knots.

We were quiet, and I traced the outline of her marvellous bones and the triangle of muscle in her stomach. What is it about intimacy that makes it so very disturbing?

If I had a demon my weak point was Melanie, but she was beautiful and good and had loved me.

Can love really belong to the demon?