“Jane Greyson had once told me that my voice was one of the Ancients—old and wise.”

“A wise man once told me that only by leaving someone good can you meet someone better.”

“A tree once saved my life. A posse was going to hang me, but this wise old oak would not let them. As a token of my gratitude to that tree, I used it for furniture instead of firewood.”

“My dad had once told me, crimson-red deep in “the talk,” that with sons, all he had to worry about was one penis, but with a daughter, he had to worry about everyone else’s.”

“Persian, Dilorom told me, had only one word for crying, whereas Old Uzbek had one hundred. Old Uzbek had words for wanting to cry and not being able to, for being caused to sob by something, for loudly crying like thunder in the clouds, for crying in gasps, for weeping inwardly or secretly, for crying ceaselessly in a high voice, for crying in hiccups, and for crying while uttering the sound 'hay hay.”

“The god of dirtcame up to me many times and saidso many wise and delectable things, I layon the grass listeningto his dog voice,frog voice; now,he said, and now,and never once mentioned foreverfrom, One or Two Things”