I wanted to teach them that rejection, and the sadness that attended it, were an integral part of loving something passionately and therefore nothing to be ashamed of.

I laughed, disarmed. “Shopping isn’t really my thing. Not when there are bookstores to be plundered and tombs to be explored.

They loved her because she was an independent spirit, unafraid to speak her mind, passionate, impetuous, and brave. Seldom lauded for her beauty, Mary Ryan had something else to offer, something women could grab ahold of and understand. She had a powerful sense of self, and this proved more magnetic and more relatable than any other single quality.

Over the course of my career, which is about 40 years, I’ve visited plenty of prisons and I know what they’re like.

Janeway enters from her office, which on the USS Voyager was called the captain’s ready room, and walks slowly through the bridge, greeting each officer in turn.

It was curious to me then, as now, the power of the performer over an audience when, in fact, the gift itself springs from the writer’s pen.

It’s not refreshing where there is confusion or any kind of discomfort in a group that has to work that closely together.

The “banker’s way” meant that you were not fit for acting, not able to channel passion, not sensitive to the subtleties of human nature. In other words, you were a creature of the material world and therefore neither welcomed nor suited to this life, where money was regarded with disdain and personal sacrifice was the order of the day.

Picasso wasn’t in conflict, you can bet your bottom dollar on that. He said, Scram! I need to work, and his mistresses and their spawn ran for the hills. Dickens wasn’t in conflict. He had ten children and wrote as many novels in almost as many years, because it was both understood and appreciated that he was gifted, famous, and rich. The male artist has always been respected.

I don’t know Kitten,” she said, zipping up her money belt, “but I’ll tell you one thing – if it were a book, I wouldn’t be able to put it down.