“Yolanda, nicknamed Yo in Spanish, misunderstood Joe in English, doubled and pronounced like the toy, Yoyo - or when forced to select from a rack of personalized keychains, Joey.”

“When there is no peril in the fight, there is no glory in the triumph.”

“Suenos. Dulces Suenos.He must be painting upstairs.I can feel it.I remember when his father was just a baby and I called her Mama for the first time and she became Mama for all of us; Mama de la casa and his father would wake up in the middle of the night and scream in his crib and nothing would make him stop, nada, and Mama would get so exhausted she would turn her back to me and cry in her pillow.I would smooth her hair-it was black, Basilio, as black as an olive-and I would turn on the radio (electricity, Basilio, in the middle of the night), to maybe calm the baby and listen to something besides the screaming.Mama liked the radio, Basilio, and we listened while your father cried-cantante negra, cantante de almas azules-and it made us feel a little better, helped us make it through.I had to get up early to catch the streetcar to the shipyard, but when the crying finally stopped sometimes the sun would be ready to pop and Mama's breathing would slow down and her shoulders would move like gentle waves, sleeping but still listening, like I can hear her now on this good bed, and Basilio-Mira, hombre, I will not tell you this again-if I moved very close and kissed her shoulders, she would turn to face me and we would have to be quiet Basilio, under the music, very, very quiet....So this I want to know, Basilio.This, if you want to live on Macon Street for another minute.Can you paint an apple baked soft in the oven, an apple filled with cinnamon and raisins?Can you paint such a woman?Are you good enough yet with those brushes so that she will step out of your pictures to turn on the radio in the middle of the night?Will she visit an old man on his death bed?If you cannot do that, Basilio, there is no need for you to live here anymore.”

“Someone who believes everything he is told simply can't be a scientist, but someone who believes nothing will wind up in jail or prematurely buried.”

“I admired the English immensely for all that they had endured, and they were certainly honorable, and stopped their cars for pedestrians, and called you “sir” and “madam,” and so on. But after a week there, I began to feel wild. It was those ruddy English faces, so held in by duty, the sense of “what is done” and “what is not done,” and always swigging tea and chirping, that made me want to scream like a hyena”

“Do not focus only on what your eyes feed you; it limits one's vision...”

“Chase is playing escort this morning. He gets cranky if we keep him waiting too long.""We wouldn't want the man with the Taser to get cranky.”