“I can only drive slowly.""That's all right.""And I can only do left turns."Rose ran downstairs, grabbed a road atlas, and ran triumphantly back up again. "Wales is left! Look! It's left all the way!”

“It had not seemed to matter that Rose was only eight years old."More than eight," said Rose. "Nearly nine.""Darling Rose, even almost nearly nine-year-old's don't fall in love," said forgetful Caddy.Caddy tried very hard to comfort Rose when Tom had left. It was not an easy job. It was like trying to comfort a small, unhappy tiger."Who said anything about falling in love?" growled Rose crossly. "Falling! Falling is by accident! I didn't fall in anything!""Oh. Right. Sorry, Posy Rose.""And I am definitely not in love!”

“He likes driving very fast on the wrong side of the road," said Sarah. "Which I can completely understand.”

“Suddenly Saffron had a picture in her mind of Sarah waiting at the bottom of the wall, and she was angry with herself.Something changed in Saffron at that moment. She knew all about feeling left out.... That was why she wanted her angel so badly; proof that she mattered as much as anyone else."I couldn't really climb the wall," she said. "And if I could, what if I got caught? What would I say?""You'd think of something.""No. It was a stupid idea. Let's try your way, early in the morning.""Before breakfast?""Yes. All right Mission Control?""All right," said Sarah. "All right, Superhero.”

“He will grow up into one of those people who lean back to smile and jump so easily it looks like slow motion and steer cars with their knees and snitch roses from gardens to give to girls and write with their left hand and own two pairs of jeans and one jacket and fall in love from such a height and so hard and so completely that they never quite recover from the drop.But at least he will have me to look out for him.”

“Once, when Tom was over here, to tease Rose, I asked him, "Before she was born, can you remember? Were things just the same as they are these days? Did it still rain and get dark and all the stuff it does now? Did the sun go up and down in exactly the same way?" Yes," Tom said, and then he smiled at Rose and said, "No. Not really. Not exactly the same way.”

“Saffy could tell by the feel of the darkness that Caddy was awake. She said, "Caddy, how far back can you remember?""Oh," said Caddy, "ages. I can remember when I could only lie flat. On my back. I can remember how pleased I was when I learned to roll over.”