"At the time of his death, my father remained a myth to me, both more and less than a man."

"I would not have known at the time, for I was too young to realize that I was supposed to have a live-in father, just…"

"With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner…"

""My grandfather, see, he's a chief. It's sort of like the king of the tribe, you know...like the Indians. So that mak…"

""Miss Hefty has invited your father to come to school on Thursday. She wants him to speak to the class." I couldn't i…"

"Away from my mother, away from my grandparents, I was engaged in a fitful interior struggle. I was trying to raise my…"

"I had learned not to care. I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a litt…"

"Strange how a single conversation can change you. Or maybe it only seems that way in retrospect. A year passes and yo…"

"Was the collaboration of some slaves any different than the silence of some Iranians who stood by and did nothing as …"

"They know too much, we have all seen too much, to take my parents' brief union — a black man and a white woman, an Af…"