“We all have a childhood dream that when there is love, everything goes like silk, but the reality is that marriage requires a lot of compromise.”

“There aren't any hard women, only soft men.”

“My body is the shape I live in and it shapes the way I live.”

“Latinos are here to stay. As citizen Raquel, I'm proud to be Latina.”

“You can't fake listening. It shows.”

“I guess it all depends on whom you ask and when you ask. Race, I've learned, is in the eye of the beholder.”

“When the occasional customer tells us his or her dream of running a bookstore someday, we recognize our own naivete in that enthusiasm. They may have some inkling about long hours and low pay, but rarely do they know about the fires, the guerrilla bargainers, the bereavements, or the prisons. Neither did we - then. But we sure do now. In all honesty, the scariest, hardest, saddest, and most important stories found in a bookshop aren't in the books, they're in the customers.”