“Identity is not inherent. It is shaped by circumstance and sensitivity and resistance to self-pity.”

“He had been taught that bread unshared is bread unblessed when someone else is hungry, whether man or beast, friend or stranger.”

“Beauty is but skin deep, ugly to the bone. And when beauty fades away, ugly claims its own.”

“I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.”

“... suffering does not ennoble. It destroys. To resist destruction, self-hatred, or lifelong hopelessness, we have to throw off the conditioning of being despised, the fear of becoming the they that is talked about so dismissively, to refuse lying myths and easy moralities, to see ourselves as human, flawed, and extraordinary. All of us extraordinary”

“Philippa, enviously, wished she could do the same, and then decided she would rather be interesting and sensitive.”

“Without the presence of black people in America, European-Americans would not be "white"-- they would be Irish, Italians, Poles, Welsh, and other engaged in class, ethnic, and gender struggles over resources and identity. (p. 107-108)”