Wildhorse Island
"When Clara and I first came to this part of the country in 1969, land was cheap...."

Letter to My Daughter
"Your mother didn't leave you. This I have to tell you, this you must know -- she left me...."

Starting Over
"Before dawn this morning I was woken by a pounding on my back door. I got out of bed and went to see who it could be. When I opened the door a woman I had never seen before said, 'Please, Mister, help me.'..."

Texas Lies
"At 19 I was strong. Able to take care of myself. Able to walk all day through the desert. Able to go without food and sleep. Able to get by...."

Tough People
"My Grandfather came to New York in 1917 and got a job. He worked all day and most of the nights, and he never learned English. In Russia he had been a writer who wrote short stories and essays in Yiddish for the Kiev newspapers. But when he died, he had been a laborer in America for more than 30 years...."

Christmas, seventeen
"There was one morning when I was seventeen, and very hungry, when I saw the ocean. It was in Oregon, on that road by the cliffs, and there was snow. The night before it had been fog, and I had been given a ride by someone who was drunk. He was going fast, and we couldn't see the road. I was asking him to stop, to let me out, but he kept saying, "What's wrong? I can drive fine...."