Steps and Exes Quotes

“There are no real Californians. There are only people who live there and people who don't.”
― Laura Kalpakian, Steps and Exes: A Novel of Family

“Nuclear didn't describe families. How could it? Dry physics was not equal to that task. In the twentieth century we needed a biological metaphor, Darwinian in scope, to suggest the gnash and crash of carnivorous life in the family gene pool. But for the 21st century, the new century, I think the metaphors must be chemical. Molecular. In the molecular family people are connected without being bound. They spindle themselves around shared experiences and affections rather than splashing in the shared gene pool.”
― Laura Kalpakian, Steps and Exes: A Novel of Family

“The computer is a cool medium. . . . you can keep things crisp, refrigerated in a way.”
― Laura Kalpakian, Steps and Exes: A Novel of Family

“With computers, e-mail, you don't hear an actual voice, but you catch a tone in the words on the screen.”
― Laura Kalpakian, Steps and Exes: A Novel of Family