“The quality of gifts depends on the sincerity of the giver.”

“It was never the right time or it was always the right time, depending on how you looked at it.”

“We all have ideas, sometimes good ones, not to mention the gift of emotional turmoil that every childhood provides.”

“It is said the sesta is one of the only gifts the Europeans brought to South America, but I imagine the Brazilians could have figured out how to sleep in the afternoon without having to endure centuries of murder and enslavement.”

“...And there it went, the burden of her lifetime, taken.”

“Minnesota! It smelled like raspberries and sunlight and tender grass. It was summer, and everything was more beautiful than any picture she had carried with her.”

“Most of the time we're loved for what we can do rather than for who we are.”