Quotes from Susan Power

She had always been different, even when she tried not to be, unable to curb her curiosity which led her to read a great number of books. Her world was constantly expanding until she could no longer fit herself into the culture that was most important to her.

Because I have willed it. And I am not a fairy tale.

We worked well together because I was quiet, fascinated by her stories of Wisconsin, which, as she told it, was not only the center of the universe but the place where all life began.

She took to praying to Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit of her childhood, who had not been a jealous God, she thought, but had waited patiently for her to honor Him again.

Don't you know you're beautiful?" Fanny picked up one of my hands as casually as she would a teacup. "Look at this, look at these delicate bones, nails as glossy as porcelain. I can't stand it." She dropped my hand and fell back into her chair in one motion. "I think it's that curl of a smile that finally does them in—partway between a sneer and a laugh. Makes them work to impress you.

As I move to help him I glanced back at my boy, the singer of bees, as he sat in a patch of sun. This is a Sacred Being, I thought, in hushed wonder. Tears sprang forward and I blinked them away. I was not proud, you see, or very glad. I was afraid for him from that day on because while this world has a great need of Sacred Beings, we are never ready for them.

Lake Michigan had tempted her. It was a clear emerald green, and she could see to the bottom. The sand looked soft.

The air she couldn't breathe was scorched, smelled like incense and tobacco, and the atmosphere was charged with an electric buzz of grace which, once you've experienced it, you will never forget.