Lisa Alther

"One day, maybe she'd stick around to explore her own capacity for the dark, but at the moment all she wanted was a cheeseburger."

"Two people sat talking in a small room for several weeks, and things started happening. They began thinking about each other; one would dream about the other; they copied each other's mannerisms. What was it really all about? She liked to think she had a firm hold on the reins at all times, but the truth was that often she was just along for the ride."

"The Sizemores are the laughing stock of wannabee genealogy. They claim Cherokee descent, but their paper trail shows them to be white."