“...he was a scream wrapped up in straw, a little, weak, vicious thing gnashing inside a monstrous facade...”

“Men’s greatest weakness is their facade of strength, and women’s greatest strength is their facade of weakness.”

“When you grow up", I said, "do you ever stop feeling little and weak?""No," she says. "There's always a little frail and tiny thing inside, no matter how grown-up you are.”

“God dramatically slew one monstrous opponent and then threw us into the arena against a stronger and more vicious foe.”

“I am wrapped round with phrases, like damp straw; I glow, phosphorescent.”

“We go on in her room, where we like to set. I get up in the big chair and she get up on me and smile, bounce a little. "Tell me bout the brown wrapping. And the present." She so excited, she squirming. She has to jump off my lap, squirm a little to get it out. Then she crawl back up. That's her favorite story cause when I tell it, she get two presents. I take the brown wrapping from my Piggly Wiggly grocery bag and wrap up a little something, like piece a candy, inside. Then I use the white paper from my Cole's Drug Store bag and wrap another one just like it. She take it real serious, the unwrapping, letting me tell the story bout how it ain't the color a the wrapping that count, it's what we is inside.”