"The damp packed earth beneath the magnolias was our playground, but even when I was small I watched the middle distan…"

"Danger is like a nutrient for truth. When you have danger, you get the best truth. When it's safe, who cares?"

"We were a tiny redoubt of culture holding our own against the neighboring Huns of organized sports. I pretended to jo…"

"Joy can come alive like that, when random pieces of history and rhythm, pause and expectation, melody and lyric, sudd…"

"Lips... were ubiquitous in the ‘50s, when a few icons of womanhood were tattooed onto my temporal lobes."

"One of the abiding mysteries of my life is the fact that lipstick disappears from my mouth five minutes after I put i…"

"Someday I’ll do an historical survey and in-depth analysis of lipstick color names and it will be an accurate reflect…"

"I loved these compliments, which he lobbed at me like popcorn at a pigeon. I felt silly for craving his attention and…"

"A cottonwood leaf beetle scuttled out of the loosened earth, frantic legs working the sandy dirt, orange and black bo…"

"And so for the remaining two hours of the meeting, Mr. Delgado and I sat in the front and directed the discussion. Or…"