“The young woman was a window waiting to be climbed through. A window that she guessed was a little broken anyway.”

“She was not a poet. She was a poem.”

“As much as I try to make the past keep still and mind its manners, it moves and murmurs with me through every day.”

“To use the language of a war correspondent, which was, she knew, what Isabel Jacobs happened to be, she would have to say thay Kitty Finch was smiling at her with hostile intent.”

“I have never got a grip on when the past begins or where it ends, but if cities map the past with statues made from bronze forever frozen in one dignified position, as much as I try to make the past keep still and mind its manners, it moves and murmurs with me through every day.”

“Life is only worth living because we hope it will get better and we'll all get home safely. But you tried and you did not get home safely. You did not get home at all.”

“It is dishonest to give me a poem and pretend to want my opinion when what you really want are reasons to live.”