“One of the chief paradoxes of our culture [is] that the welfare of its children, its _future_, is placed almost exclusively in the hands of people of low status, a class it holds in contempt.”

“... to have a lover and friend in one was the best love of all.”

“She preferred keeping her mouth shut and appearing a fool to opening it and removing the doubt.”

“Life is short, have dessert first.”

“Not much about California, on its own preferred terms, has encouraged its children to see themselves as connected to one another.”

“It's a strange paradox that a man gifted with too many talents can fritter them all away without developing a single one to its full.”

“...it reveals the legacy of an environmental catastrophe, its human tolls and triumphs, its corporate greed and indifference, its governmental lapses and neglect. In its historic sweep, it stands as a cautionary tale -- timeless and time-bound -- in a country divided by class and religion, buffeted by corporate misconduct, and dismantling its environmental protection laws. This is the story of a dying coal town ensnared in the Reagan Revolution's afterbirth, of a small community rent by one of the mining industry's worst disasters, and of the irreplaceable bond of home.”