"as time succeeded time into a whirlpool of eternity."

"Once we lost the keys to our houses in Barcelona during The Plague, or the Inquisition or whatever other excuse was g…"

"She could drop her shyness the way she dropped it to recite a speech or a poem, then step back into it like a cloak."

"When children went every day to school to learn to live in a world that no longer existed."

"Tater was proud of her unusual name, and secretly hoped she was like them, ordinary at first look, but gem-like on th…"

"This is how they took back the world - step by step, song by song."

"This was new, the consciousness that she might have a future beyond herself."

"By becoming a writer, you can rewrite history. ("Your Grandmother Might Have Been Mayor, or Why Write?", 1990)"

"Writing about family history has taught me that much of who we think we are is based on the unexplainable. ("The Skel…"

"After all, what is the passing of time but a diamond turned to dust?"