We tap our toes to chaste love songs about the silvery moon without recognizing them as hymns to copulation.

But still, I’d be darned if I was going to be one of those Americans who stomp around Italy barking commands in ever-louder English. I was going to be one of those Americans who traversed Italy with my forehead knit in concentration, divining wordsw from their Latin roots and answering by wedging French cognates into Italian pronunciations spliced onto a standard Spanish verb conjugation.

It's tough to break yourself as news to a town that already knows you.

Value is not made of money, but a tender balance of expectation and longing.

Eaters must understand, how we eat determines how the world is used.

The reason most people have kids is because they get pregnant.

So one time when I was working in this motel one of the toilets leaked and I had to replace the flapper ball. Here's what it said on the package; I kept it till I knew it by heart: 'Please Note. Parts are included for all installations, but no installation requires all of the parts.' That's kind of my philosophy about men. I don't think there's an installation out there that could use all my parts.