"Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last."
Chap. 1, p. 1

"As I climbed, I was anxious that the door at the top might be too much for my strength, but it yielded to me. And then! The glory of the sky! Light and air all about me! The earth and the enormous sea at my feet. 'Mine!' I shouted and flung open my arms to embrace it."
Chap. 12, p. 59

"For my mother and my aunt, the thought of babies revitalized their beings. And yet, I did not just want babies, or men who went to sea. I wanted something for myself."
Chap. 22, p. 124

"I would not marry anyone anytime anywhere. I would sail as a man and live ashore as a woman. I would do just as I pleased. Son long as I hurt no other being, why not do exactly as I pleased?"
Chap...