""We're terrible gossips, but 'gossip' in the sense that Phyllis Rose described it, the first step on the ladder to self-knowledge," Thompson said, adding, "Gossip is discussion about life's detail. And in life's details are all the little bits of stitching that you need to hold it to-fucking-gether." Thompson embodies the poet May Sarton's observation that "one must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being." Part of female heroism, Thompson says, is decency and taking care of others: "Women will look around and often be aware of what others need. They have to be like that because no one else will fucking do it. Women look after everyone endlessly-and without them there'd be nothing.'"