Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.

Horses are a mirror of who you are. They're emotionally dependent on you.

No one expected you to amount to much," she told me. "Lori was the smart one, Maureen the pretty one, and Brian the brave one. You never had much going for you except that you always worked hard.

....he said it was interesting. He used the word 'textured'. He said 'smooth' is boring but 'textured' was interesting, and the scar meant that I was stronger than whatever had tried to hurt me.

Those shining stars, he liked to point out, were one of the special treats for people like us who lived out in the wilderness. Rich city folks, he'd say, lived in fancy apartments, but their air was so polluted they couldn't even see the stars. We'd have to be out of our minds to want to trade places with any of them.

Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.

In this world, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you got it.