“When Mama starts to move across a room, people pay attention. You can never be sure she's not going to grab you by the top of the head to steady herself. And she's pretty free with that walking stick, too.”

“People pay money to go in there and that row thrown at them? Could stick your head in a bucket and whack it with a stick for free...”

“You’ll never get that freedom back again once people start paying you attention, and especially not once they start paying you money.”

“I don't like phones. You can't be sure people are paying attention to you when you're talking to them.”

“she might have been pretty when she started out, but the world had moved on since then.”

“She was never going to be the kind of person who didn't stick out in all directions. To want it was the same as hating herself. That was the truth. She breathed those words. She could have repeated them a hundred times and they wouldn't have hurt any worse. Reality was stubborn for sure, but it was large and it had possibilities. It was a sweet relief when you let it come.”