“A true helpmate is not a blind follower, but rather she is a faithful friend and a wise sister in Christ who understands the seriousness of sin”

“Men trust God by risking rejection. Women trust God by waiting.”

“Sure, he'd kill, she didn't doubt that, but she got the impression he'd rather leave you maimed someplace so you could die nice and slow. While he watched and took detailed notes so he'd do better the next time.”

“He made a small movement of his head. "Do you love Pennhyll as well as you do the mountain upon which it sits?""I find it much like you."His mouth quirked, and then, curved in another smile. She stared, transfixed by the sight. "Unpleasant and forlorn?"She tipped her head to one side, considering him. She felt an odd sensation of understanding this harsh man who was, in fact, a stranger to her. "Not entirely unpleasant, that I will admit. Nor forlorn, either.""Do not tell me you find me amiable.""Certainly not. Like Pennhyll, you are strong and fierce." She felt, ridiculous as it was, that she knew him better than she knew herself. "To make a life here is to have courage and heart, and those you surely have.”

“While some women had wing girls for club hopping, Sal had something far more important - a best friend who could run patient interference better than most linebackers.”

“. . . the most potent reward for parenthood I have known has been delight in my fully grown progeny. They are friends with an extra dimension of affection. True, there is also an extra dimension of resentment on the children's part, but once offspring are in their thirties, their ability to love their parents, perhaps in contemplation of the deaths to come, expands, and, if one is fortunate, grudges recede. []p. 209]”

“But seriously, what were his parents thinking? Naming their son Richard Updike? Did they want him to get beaten up his entire adolescence?”