With a cheery delicacy she divided my obsessions into three categories: acceptable, unacceptable, and hilarious.

If he thinks he would harm Mirabelle, he would back away. But he does not yet understand when and how people are hurt. He doesn't understand the subtleties of slights and pains, that it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into the heart.

I really enjoy finding the right word, creating a good, flowing sentence. I enjoy the rhythm of the words.

...a young man, Jamaican, perhaps, his head circled in a scarf with sunbleached dreadlocks on piled on top, looking like a plate of soft-shell crabs.

It's not the size of the nose that matters, it's what's inside that counts.

I feel good about being able to take bluegrass on to television like 'Letterman' and 'The View,' and I've heard nice things about being able to do that. I really haven't felt any negativity toward me or my music.

she is nearing forty and not so easily forgiven as when her skin bloomed like roses.