“Imagine a world full of Elizabeth Wakefields,' Lila said. 'Could you imagine a duller, more predictable place? I think I’d go crazy.”

“How inappropriate,’ Lila said coldly. ‘Who’d ever dream of showing up at a dance in a wheelchair? What does she think she’s going to do all night?”

“In the midst of a full-blown disaster – with the house apparently self-destructing around them – Lila was calmly filing her nails.”

“Honestly,’ she said when they were out of Bruce’s earshot, ‘he’s as bad in the kitchen as you are. What do you people do on the servant’s night off, anyway?’ Lila looked Jessica straight in the eye. 'Cold lobster and caviar,’ she said earnestly.”

“Your friend Lila is calling from her car phone,' Ned said, half amused and half annoyed. 'Apparently something earth-shattering has come up, and unless she can talk to you this very second, she claims she will die.”

“Losers with no imagination say that if you start a new school, there has to be a first day. How come they haven't figure out how to be that? Just think existentially. All you do is take what is supposed to be the first day and bury someplace in the next month. By the time you get around to it a month later, who cares?”

“I think I’m going to cut down on my dating,’ Annie said. ‘I used to need a lot of attention. You know, to make up for that empty feeling inside. But boys aren’t always the answer.”