“He'd already identified me as a heathen, and I hoped he wouldn't try to change that.”

“Nice people always make me want to do bad things.”

“Um…you’re four blocks away. Why can’t you walk?”“I’m naked.” Sometimes the truth was like a band-aid in needof removal; one had to get it over with as quickly as possible.“And I’m sitting in a bougainvillea bush.”Jason was silent. Even his silence sounded angry. Praline knewhe should have sent a text.”

“The house, it's already been a-settin' here for a hundred years. It'll be right here tomorrow. It's today I must be livin'.”

“I am resolutely opposed to all innovation, all change, but I am determined to understand what’s happening. Because I don’t choose just to sit and let the juggernaut roll over me. Many people seem to think that if you talk about something recent, you’re in favor of it. The exact opposite is true in my case. Anything I talk about is almost certainly something I’m resolutely against. And it seems to me the best way to oppose it is to understand it. And then you know where to turn off the buttons.”

“Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.”

“Our lives are constantly changing. Different things become relevant at different times in our lives. We are motivated by our changing sensibilities. Why can that not be applied to art?”