“She was beautiful, in the quiet way that lonely, unnoticed people are beautiful to those who notice them.”

“She was--I keep using the past tense; I ought to say she is--one of those people who, at first sight, look plain, are quiet, unassertive, unmemorable even. But who, when they start to talk and you get to know them, become more and more attractive and impressive, and you see that in fact they are beautiful. Not conventionally beautiful, not celebrity beautiful, but beautiful all through.”

“Have you noticed," she asked him, "how we live much of our lives in the past and most of the rest of it in the future? Have you noticed how often the present moment slips by quiet unnoticed?”

“People who are different are beautiful. Those who follow society are boring.”

“I've never done this before," she confessed.He stopped and rounded them both into dance position. "You're so beautiful tonight, no one will notice if you misstep. And by the way,happy birthday.”

“She's still beautiful. Not in an obvious Vanessa LeGrande or Byrn Shraeder kind of way. In a quiet way that's always been devastating to me.”