“As he got older, Billy suspected, he would, Dicaprio-like, simply become like an increasingly wizened child.”

“Daddy named me Billie Jo. He wanted a boy. Instead, he got a long legged girl with a wide mouth with cheekbones like bicycle handles. He got a redheaded, freckle faced, narrow-hipped girl with a fondness for apples and hunger for playing fierce piano.”

“You're an unusual person," she said. "Bill didn't like you, but he never likes anything different. He's so—so prosaic. Don't you think that when a person gets older he should become—broadened in his outlook?”

“Like Lincoln, I would like to believe the ballot is stronger than the bullet. Then again, he said that before he got shot.”

“Billy moved restlessly. "Seems like-seems like- towards night as if a body got kind o' lonesome for a woman person-like her." Billy indicated Margaret and then closed his eyes so tight his small face wrinkled.”

“The older he got, the simpler the world was revealed to be.”