Right and wrong were shades of meaning, not sides of a coin.

When small towns find they cannot harm the strangest of their members, when eccentrics show resilience, they are eventually embraced and even cherished.

I had a very free childhood and ranged around on my bicycle the way boys do. I had few restrictions.

I thought how we might have to yell to be heard by Higher Power, but that's not saying it's not there. And that is faith for you. It's belief even when the gods don't deliver.

Death is the least civilized rite of passage.

Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that.

Our tribe unraveled like a coarse rope, frayed at either end as the old and new among us were taken.