“Marriage is like working in a coal mine. You hack away in the dark, day after day, busting rock, and you think you're not getting anywhere, and then all of a sudden, this little sliver of sunlight appears and you say to yourself, "oh, that's what I've been waiting for--just a little light, just a little bit of hope--a sign, maybe, that will get me through. And...it does.”

“It's easy to love men when you're sixteen. Every year after that, it gets just a little bit harder. Or maybe men just get a little bit duller.”

“Maybe that's what living in America does to you: it spreads you into far distances until you're just little bits rolling apart.”

“Isn't it sad, growing up? You start off like my Charlie. You start off thinking you can kill all the baddies and save the world. Then you get a little bit older, maybe Little Bee's age, and you realize that some of the world's badness is inside you, that maybe you're a part of it. And then you get a bit older still, and a bit more comfortable, and you start wondering whether that badness you've seen in yourself is really all that bad at all. You start talking about ten per cent."Maybe that's just developing as a person, Sarah."I sighed and looked out at Little Bee Well," I said, "maybe this is a developing world.”

“I think that sometimes, when you're with the wrong person, you try to become what that person wants. You lose yourself and who you are, just a little bit, but that doesn't mean you can't get it back.”

“The fact that you got a little happier today doesn't change the fact that you also became a little sadder. Every day you become a little more of both, which means that right now, at this exact moment, you're the happiest and the saddest you've ever been in your whole life...Think about it it. Have you ever been happier than right now, lying here in the grass? And have you ever been sadder? It isn't like that for everyone. Some people just get happier and happier every day. And some people just get sadder and sadder. And some people, like you, get both.And what about you, are you the happiest and the saddest right now that you've ever been?Of course I am. Why?Because nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you.”