"If I didn't have something to look for, I would be lost. . .it was one of her most shimmering utterances." Chap. 1, p. 12

"Her laughter came from deep down in herself and deep down in the past, which in one way was lost and gone and in other ways was still as much within her reach as the can of root beer with a straw sticking in it which . . . was the only thing that helped her dry throat." (Chap. 1, p. 13

"The sadness was I'd lost a father I had never fully found. . .Your whole life through you search to catch the strain, and seek the face you've lost in strangers' faces." Chap. 1, p. 21

"The fearsome blessing of that hard time continues to work itself out in my life in the same way we're told the universe is still hurtling through outer space under the impact of the great cosmic...