“He loved her, of course, but better than that, he chose her, day after day. Choice: that was the thing.”

“Summer coming like a car from down the highway.”

“Seems like the cold would never go away and winter would be like the bottom of my feet but then it is gone in one night and in its place comes the sun so large and laughable.”

“What is it like to be a Spokane Indian without wild salmon? It is like being a Christian if Jesus had never rolled back the stone and risen from his tomb.”

“Nervous means you want to play. Scared means you don't want to play.”

“There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away. (107)”

“So Lightning says to Mud,What would happen if I struck your blood?And Mud says, Brother, It would hurt, And make me the motherOf every living thing.But, Fire Boy, you aint lifting my grass skirtUnt...”

“Lightning has no mercy.”

“At that instant a dazzling claw of lightning streaked down the length of the sky. The hedge and the distant trees seemed to leap forward in the brilliance of the flash. Immediately upon it came the...”