The Best American Essays 2006 Quotes

“Once I called a friend to say I couldn't go on teaching at the prestigious workshop I was visiting because I could not stand the torturing voices in my head, 24 hours a day, saying I was no good, stupid, not as smart as the others, not as respected or loved, that I had no value, that I was there only because I was black, that I had done or said the wrong thing, that I wasn't really a poet, my friend said, 'Why not ask the torturing voices for where they get their information?' I did, and without hesitation they answered, 'From your mother.'

Things had changed by then, so I flipped back, 'You haven't got the latest information!' 50, Toi Derricotte”
― Lauren Slater, The Best American Essays 2006

“Essay writing is not about facts, although the essay may contain facts. Essay writing is about transcribing the often convoluted process of thought, leaving your own brand of breadcrumbs in the forest so that those who want to can find their way to your door. xvii

The essayist often brings to the writing table an odd mix of shame and showmanship and it may well be that the tension thererin is what propels the work. xx”
― Lauren Slater, The Best American Essays 2006

“Your pathology report shows that your tumor is consistent with hepatoma, which is, uh, which is liver cancer." Already I am struggling: Does "consistent with" mean they think that but they don't really know it? No, those are just scientific weasel words they use in pathology reports. (A pathologist, I will learn, would look at your nose and report that it is consistent with a breathing apparatus.) 248 Marjorie Williams”
― Lauren Slater, The Best American Essays 2006

“There is nothing like having a doctor who really cares about you—who can speed up the inhuman pace of medical time, which usually leaves patients begging to hear their test results, waiting too many days for an appointment, at a loss until the conveyor belt brings along the next hurried intervention. 247, Marjorie Williams, A Matter of Life and Death.”
― Lauren Slater, The Best American Essays 2006