“We don't always do the things our parents want us to do, but it is their mistake if they can't find a way to love us anyway.”

“You all seem to think you should marry someone when you feel this intense emotion, which you call love. And then you expect the love will fade over time, as life gets harder. When what you should do is find yourself a nice enough fellow and let real love develop over years and births and deaths and so on.”

“Women leave their marriages when they can't take any more. Men leave when they find someone new.”

“These fucking women really piss me off,' April said. 'Because instead of being elated by the thought of making their own happiness and chasing some crazy dream, all they want to do is narrow their options and do something safe.”

“How could a person have and do all these stupid things--clip coupons and double lock the front door--and then one day just cease to exist?”

“Ruby shook her head, but she smiled, a look that said she loved this man, loved the life they had made together. They seemed utterly comfortable with one another, like they knew each other all the way through.”

“She had once said that she believed the women's liberation movement of the sixties and seventies was actually a ploy by men to get women to do more.”