...the first sign of civilization is always trash.

How can you do the right thing when you can't figure out what that is? When all you have before you are choices in various shades of wrong?

Well...you're a martyr and I'm a patron saint-I can't think of anyone better!

It's amazing that something as simple as a kiss can overpower the worst of worries.

Sometimes we make our alliances not by the shape and color of our flesh but by the convictions of our heart.

Should I push him or should I throw him?" Howie asks. "Do what comes naturally," I yelled back. "I don't know," he says. "This is a very unnatural thing.

Part of my job is to help other kids find books, because not everyone has a keenly organized mind. Some kids could wander the library for hours and still have no idea how to find anything. For them, the Dewey Decimal System might as well be advanced calculus.