“It is strange to hear your mother talk about being human because, honestly, it's too easy to forget.”

“Mom is talking to Jack. "I hear you're interested in zoo animals."I snort. There's a sentence you don't hear too often. I fake an insulted sigh."Well, thank-you, Mother. Yes, I'm hungry, but you don't have to be so honest about it. Your tact is amazing.”

“It's your responsibility to live an interesting life, because it's too easy not to.”

“This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labor on which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism.”

“Perry was leaning into my mother as he listened to what she said. They talked so close. He only leaned closer, his hands on the table, his leg touching hers. "It's so risky," my mother said. "Why are you doing this?""Because I'm human being. Because we're all human beings."My mother closed her eyes and winced. Maybe her hearing aid was ringing and bothering her, but as I watched her turn down the volume, I wanted to tell her right then that she couldn't quiet all those outside voices forever.”

“Drought brings out the worst in us and it's easy to hate your fellow human beings.”