Animal Dreams Heroism Quotes

I wondered whether Doc Homer had a whole other life in his head, in which he dispensed kind, fatherly advice. This gulf—between what Doc Homer believed himself to be and what he was—brought out the worst in me, or the most blunt. (21.53)

At first the Stitch and B**** was divided in its opinion of [Sean] Rideheart. [...] But for once the Doña judged wrong. His intentions were noble, and ultimately providential. When the club assembled in March for its monthly meeting [...] Mr. Rideheart was the guest speaker. He was supposed to lecture on folk art, which he did, but mostly he talked about Grace. He told these women what they had always known: that their town had a spirit and disposition completely apart from its economic identity as an outpost of the Black mountain Mining Company. [...] Mr. Rideheart suggested that he had never known of a place quite like Gracela Canyon, and that it could, and should be declared a historic preserve. (22.43-4)

I couldn't resist getting sidetracked by one [box] marked "ARTWORK, H. 3-6." The subjects of Hallie's crayon drawings were mainly the two of us, stick sisters holding hands, or else just me, my orangeish hair radiating from my head like a storm of solar flares. There was not one figure anywhere representing Doc Homer. I wondered if he'd noticed. But he must have. He was the one who'd picked up each drawing, rescued it from destruction, and finally labeled the box. The invisible archivist of our lives. (22.78)