You really want to know what being an X-Man feels like? Just be a smart bookish boy of color in a contemporary U.S. ghetto. Mamma mia! Like having bat wings or a pair of tentacles growing out of your chest.

You're the only person I've ever met who can stand a bookstore as long as I can.

You ask everybody you know: How long does it usually take to get over it? There are many formulas. One year for every year you dated. Two years for every year you dated. It's just a matter of will power: The day you decide it's over, it's over. You never get over it.

I sat down next to her. Took her hand. This can work, I said. All we have to do is try.

Ybon was the one who suggested calling the wait something else. Yeah, like what? Maybe, she said, you could call it life.

I've always thought that you don't love a country by turning a blind eye to its crimes and to a problem. The way that you love a country is by seeing everything that it's done wrong, all of its mistakes, and still thinking that it's beautiful and that it's worthy.

The idea that America has cornered the market on anti-immigration is ridiculous. It's a global phenomenon.