"Frida Kahlo is one of the greatest speakers for pain in a century that has known, perhaps not more suffering than other times, but certainly a more unjustified and therefore shameful, cynical and publicized, programmed, irrational, and deliberate form of suffering than ever" (Introduction, pg. 12.)

"There is a humor in Kahlo that transcends politics and even aesthetics, tickling the ribs of life itself" (Introduction, pg. 21.)

"Reading through Frida Kahlo's diary is unquestionably an act of transgression, an undertaking inevitably charged with an element of voyeurism" (Essay, pg. 25.)

"Despite the pain and anguish Kahlo freely and openly expressed in her diary, her unquenchable thirst for life reveals itself. Her wit and alegria, her sense of irony and black humor all emerge here." (Essay, pg. 29.)

"warble-glance-neck, vine / black hair silk girl wind / father grief pirate salive / hay clamp consumption lively" (Plate 5, pg. 203.)

"Diego: Nothing compares to your hands / nothing like...