If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime.

The summer sun was not meant for boys like me. Boys like me belonged to the rain.

I wondered if my smile was as big as hers. Maybe as big. But not as beautiful.

I wondered about the science of storms and how sometimes it seemed that a storm wanted to break the world and how the world refused to break.

Water was something he loved, something he respected. He understood its beauty and its dangers. He talked about swimming as if it were a way of life.

You are thirst and thirst is all I know

We have this huge discourse on family in this country, but no one deconstructs it the same way. People talk about "the American family." The right wing has this thing - Focus on the Family. What the hell is that? I don't want to just discuss the issues - I want family to be a real part of the character of the novels I write, and I don't like to write things that feel like issue books.