"You know what futurists and online-ists and cut-out-the-middle-man-ists and Davos-ists and deconstructionists of ever…"

"The genius of American culture and its integrity comes from fidelity to the light. Plain as day, we say. Happy as the…"

"Mexico is a nineteenth-century country arranged for gaslight. Once brought into the harsh light of the twentieth-cent…"

"As you see yourself, I once saw myself; as you see me now, you will be seen."

"His name was William Saroyan. He was the first writer I fell in love with, boyishly in love. I was held by his unaffe…"

"Of all the institutions in their lives, only the Catholic Church has seemed aware of the fact that my mother and fath…"

"My parents seem to me possessed of great dignity. An aristocratic reserve. Like the very rich who live behind tall wa…"

"Once upon a time, I was a ‘socially disadvantaged’ child. An enchantedly happy child. Mine was a childhood of intense…"

"I grew up victim to a disabling confusion. As I grew fluent in English, I no longer could speak Spanish with confidence."

"‘Why?’ My mother’s question hangs in the still air of memory. The loneliness I have felt many mornings, however, has …"