“She was careful with her apple tree. She did not ask too much of it.”

“She was too dependent on what other people thought of her, and that was her downfall. She cared too much. She was only what other people saw in her—-that is, what she imagined they saw in her.”

“She walks in the loveliness she made, Between the apple-blossom and the water--She walks among the patterned pied brocade,Each flower her son, and every tree her daughter.”

“She didn't care about anything, or maybe she cared too much.”

“This is an evil dream, she thought. But if she were dreaming, why did it hurt so much?She tried to ask the shadows, but they did not answer. Perhaps they did not hear her. Perhaps they were not real.”

“because we watched her so closely out of the corners of our eyes, everything she did made too much noise, her cigarette smoke got into everything, she drank too much wine at dinner.”