For the rest of our lives, all we can hear are our names chanted over and over, until we are deaf to everything else.

But I'm also addicted to books. And I know there has never been a human being or a television show, no matter how great, that could measure up to a great book.

(I think Rowdy might be the most important person in my life. maybe more important than my family.) Can your best friend be more importamt than your family? (24)

I ain't interested in the truth. I'm interested in the way things should be.

Estranged from the tribe that gives no protection, What happens to the soul that hates its reflection?

I don't think you should run through life with a real erect penis. But you should approach each book - you should approach life - with the real possibility that you might get a metaphorical boner at any point.

Then I remember that God is really, really old. So maybe God has God arthritis. And maybe that's why the world sucks. Maybe God's hands and fingers don't work as well as they used to.

Every book is a mystery. And if you read all the books ever written, it's like you've read one giant mystery. And no matter how much you learn, you just keep on learning there is so much more you need to learn.

He looked into the crowd for approval, saw his mother and father. He waved and they waved back. Smiles and Indian teeth. They were both drunk. Everything familiar and welcome. Everything beautiful.

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.

That's right, I am a book kisser. Maybe that's kind of perverted or maybe it's just romantic and highly intelligent.

He could see his uncles slugging each other with such force that they had to be in love. Strangers would never want to hurt each other that badly.

Like any good shaman, professional baseball player, or politician, my mother always answered questions with questions.

He likes to pretend he lives inside the comic books. I guess a fake life inside a cartoon is a lot better than his real life.

Those Montana Indians were so tough that white people were scared of them. Can you imagine a place where white people are scared of Indians and not the other way around? That's Montana.

(So I heard the boom of my fathr's rifle when he shot my best friend.) A bullet only costs about two cents, and anybody can afford that.(14)

Gay people could do anything. They were like Swiss army knives.

The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know.

I knew I was being an idiot. But I figured if I kept being an idiot, if I didn't actually accept the truth, then the truth would become false.

And then she asks me how many sexual partners I've had and I say one or two depending on your definition of what I did to Custer . . .

I was emotionally erect.

Rowdy fought everybody. He fought boys and girls. Men and women. He fought stray dogs. Hell, he fought the weather. He'd throw wild punches at rain. Honestly.

Pain is never added to pain. It multiplies.

He wanted the songs, the stories, to save everybody.