“Still, she knows one thing for certain: never judge a relationship unless you are the one wrapped up in its arms.”

“Once you know some things, you can't unknow them. It's a burden that can never be given away.”

“You watch teenage girls and feel shivers up and down your arms -- those poor creatures don't know the first thing about time or agony or the price they're going to have to pay for just about everything.”

“Mrs. Dale was a good woman, Hollis will grant her that. A busybody and a pain in the neck, but she never judged what she didn't understand and that Hollis knows, is rare. Unlike Alan and the boys in the village, she treated him fairly, but that doesn't mean he has to moan and bellyache down at the funeral parlor. Ashes to ashes, that's all there is. If you can't change a fact of life, then be smart enough to walk away from it.”

“She was partial to emeralds; she said they were the single thing that remained constant, always green, always the same...My mother had been right, it was one thing that lasted, the one thing we could depend on. Other than our love for each other, it was all we had right now.”

“Margaret thought of all she knew for certain, that day would always follow night that love was never wasted nor was it lost.”

“No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way.”