It is true that I do not speak as well as I can think. But that is true of most people, as nearly as I can tell.

But we've all ended up giving body and soul to Africa, one way or another. Even Adah, who's becoming an expert in tropical epidemiology and strange new viruses. Each of us got our heart buried in six feet of African dirt; we are all co-conspirators here. I mean, all of us, not just my family. So what do you do now? You get to find your own way to dig out a heart and shake it off and hold it up to the light again.

it's the thing you fear most that walks beside you all the time.

For scientists, reality is not optional.

It occurs to her that there is one thing about people you can never understand well enough: how entirely inside themselves they are.

Prayer had always struck me as more or less a glorified attempt at a business transaction.

I made it to the childbearing phase without TV dependence, then looked around and thought, Well gee, why start now? Why get a pet python on the day you decide to raise fuzzy little gerbils?