Smoke Signals (1998)

Factual error: When Victor and Thomas are riding on the bus from Idaho to Arizona, the same driver is driving the bus the whole trip. In reality, the driver would have changed a few times on such a long trip.

Thomas Builds-the-Fire: Your father saved my life.
Victor Joseph: Thomas you don't even know my father. Did you know that my father was the one that set your parent's house on fire? Did you know that my father beat my mother? Did you know that my father beat me too?
Thomas Builds-the-Fire: All I know is that when your father left your mother lost you too.
Victor Joseph: Thomas I wish that fire had killed you.
Thomas Builds-the-Fire: Victor look OUT.

Trivia: In one of the flashbacks, Arnold asks Victor who his favorite Indian is. Victor responds with "Nobody." The actor who plays Arnold, Gary Farmer, played a Native American character named "Nobody" in the 1995 western film, 'Dead Man'. (00:25:26)

Question: What does Thomas mean by "There are some children who are pillars of flame that burn everything they touch and there are some children who are just pillars of ash that fall apart when you touch them. Me and Victor, we were children born of flame and ash."