“I don't know if it's better to have people laugh at what you are or just not understand.”

“A woman made of parts is a dangerous thing. You never know when she'll throw away a piece you may need.”

“The bottle is where everything sad or mean or confusing can go. And the blues--it's like that bottle. But in the bottle there's a seed that you let grow. Even in the bottle it can grow big and green. It's full of all those feelings that are in there, but beautiful and growing too.”

“We live in the same house but we both feel lonely. We and lonely don't belong in the same sentence.”

“Seeing Grandma this way, it makes me know for certain that everything about a person will show up in another person in the family.”

“I think of how Grandma makes fun of love. And maybe that’s the key.”

“I'm not the color of my skin. I'm a story. One with a past and a future unwritten.”