"Losing makes us miserable, startles us awake. It's also inevitable... Losing casts all kinds of shadows on what we thought we knew... Surely losing is one of the most endemic frictions of our journey." Introduction, page xi-xii

"Inside this coat, my father was invisible. He became the smell of wet leaves, the smoke of campfires, and when he wrapped me in his sleeves, I stepped inside the dark forest." My Father's Coat, page 5

"If what we do is what we are, you're all over the place... If what we do is who we are, you're still home here with us; more than underground." David, page 6

"Of course our lives played out a different story, but even now there are things I believe are not impossible; she could have been Tecumseh's great-granddaughter, we could have been happy." Battleground State Park, page 9

"I didn't bring you up to embarrass me...