I have a good memory for early life. My visual memory is good about childhood and adolescence, and less good in the last 10 years. I could probably tell you less what happened in the last 10 years. I remember what houses looked like, sometimes they just pop into my head.

A girl's not a watermelon you plug a hole in to see if it's sweet.

If Mitchell was ever going to become a good Christian, he would have to stop disliking people so intensely.

It was something every child knew how to do, maintain a direct and full connection with the world. Somehow you forgot about it as you grew up, and had to learn it again.

If love were endless, if it were on tap, it wouldn't hit us the way it does. And we certainly wouldn't write about it.

It was like autumn, looking at her. it was like driving up north to see the colors.

Sourmelina's secret (as Aunt Zo put it): 'Lina was one of those women they named the island after.