Codi: Gives you the willies, doesn't it? The thought of raising kids in a place where the front yard ends in a two-hundred-foot drop? [referring to cliff dwellings] Loyd: No worse than raising up kids where the front yard ends in a freeway.

People read books to escape the uncertainties of life.

there are people who read my work and accuse me of being political! As far as I'm concerned that's like accusing a dog of having a bark!

Cooking is 80 percent confidence, a skill best acquired starting from when the apron strings wrap around you twice.

I look at my four boys, who are the colors of silt, loam, dust, and clay, an infinite palette for children of their own, and I understand that time erases whiteness altogether.

Now, see, that's why you want Internet friends. You can find people just exactly like you. Screw your neighbors and your family, too messy...the trouble is, once you filter out everybody that doesn't agree with you, all that's left is maybe this one retired surfer guy living in Idaho.

Everything you're sure is right can be wrong in another place.