“What does a car bomb say about poverty, or the execution of a rural mayor explain about disenfranchisement?...The war had become, it it wasn't from the beginning, an indecipherable text.”

“I often thought about him during the war; if only 1900 were here, who knows what he'd do, what he'd say. 'Fuck war' he'd say. But somehow, coming from me, it wasn't the same.”

“In the beginning, I want to say something about human greatness. Some time ago, I was reading texts of Kungtse. When I read these texts, I understood something about human greatness. What I understood from his writings was: What is greatest in human beings is what makes them equal to everybody else. Everything else that deviates higher or lower from what is common to all human beings makes us less. If we know this, we can develop a deep respect for every human being.”

“But I never thought of who he wasn't, I never had to explain or defend him to myself, I didn't even care what we talked about.”

“We declare you the new mayor!" declares the crowd.what about the old mayor?" I'll ask.I'm not the one with the big plans!" he'll say.”

“(About beginning to write after moving from New York to Texas...) Honestly, there wasn't much else to do there.”