"The trouble with living on the wrong side of the world was that I didn't feel like a real American. For instance. I could never be president of the United States. I didn't want to be president; I wanted to be a writer. Still, why should there be a law saying that only a person born in the United States could be president? It was as if I wouldn't be American enough."
Chap. 1, p. 10

"I never saw anyone give money to a beggar. You couldn't, my father explained, or you'd be mobbed by beggars. They'd follow you everyplace; they'd never leave you alone. I had learned not to look at them when I passed and yet I saw. The running sores, the twisted legs, the mangled faces."
Chap. 1, p. 19

"I always thought I would feel more American if I'd been named Marjorie. I could picture a girl named...