“She is too absorbed in the difficulties of being seventeen to want to hear the confusions of forty-four.”

“My prior experience with young men was to hear them swear 'Christ almighty in the craphouse!' at any dress with too many buttons.”

“Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say.”

“But being a stay-at-home mom was the loneliest kind of lonely, in which she was always and never by herself.”

“Lusa turned to Crys, her eyes shining. "That was a luna."Crys shrugged. "So?""So? So what? You want it should sing, too?”

“In a lifetime of hearing people celebrate weekends, she finally saw what all the fuss was about. By no means did her workload cease on Saturday, but it did shift gears. If her kids wanted to pull everything out of the laundry basket to make a bird's nest and sit in it, fine. Dellarobia could even sit in there with them and incubate, if she so desired. Household chores no longer called her name exclusively. She had an income. She'd never before understood how much her life in this little house had felt to her like confinement in a sinking vehicle after driving off a bridge. ..... To open a hatch and swim away felt miraculous. Working outside the home took her about fifty yards from her kitchen, which was far enough. She couldn't see the dishes in the sink.”

“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.”