“But it's tempting, isn't it, to give somebody like Olympia or Fenleigh a taste of their own medicine? To get even?'I agree it's tempting. *Really* tempting. But it doesn't solve anything. It just perpetuates the problem by making us as bad as them. And we don't need any more of them, do we?”

“I'm starting to believe that happily ever after includes people doing things that upset each other. We all get cranky, or impatient, or worried, or careless enough to do or say things that hurt someone else. Like it or not, that's normal. We can't blame it all on Olympia's bad energy. The important part is that we feel sorry about what we've done and make up for it. That's something Olympia never did.”

“I know it's important to do more than just complain when there's something you don't like. You need to try to do something about it, or you're nothing but a whiner.”

“You go to grab your moments and squeeze them dry. Enjoy them while you’re having them. Then remember and enjoy them all over again in your memory. And try to have more good ones than bad ones —- or at least remember more of the good ones.”

“I figured that when there's no way of knowing what the future holds it's just as easy to believe it'll be good as to believe it'll be bad.”

“This is some kind of life, isn't it? Something good happening inside something bad.”

“Congratulations. You have met your conscience. In my experience, the world is divided between those who have one and those who don't. And the ones with one are divided into those who will act on their conscience and those who won't. Those who will are, I'm afraid, the smallest category. They will *jeito*. It's Brazilian Portuguese. It means to find a way to get something done, no matter what the obstacles.”