“Had you but seen it, I promise you, your high-minded principles would have melted like candle wax. Never would you have wished such beauty away.”

“It's a good thing you and your pills weren't around a few hundred years ago or there never would have been a Vermeer or a Caravaggio. You'd have drugged "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "The Taking of Christ" right the hell out of them.”

“What had I seen? Too much. What did I know? Only that knowledge carries a damned high price. Miss Wilcox, my teacher, had taught me so much. Why had she never taught me that?”

“I love you, too... I won't ever leave you again. I promise. I kept that promise. For love him I did. For nearly two years I spent almost every waking hour with him. Until he was taken from me. But I never left him. And I never will.”

“If I had coal and fireAnd metal fine and trueI’d make an iron band An iron band for you I’d pick up all the pieces From where they fell that dayFit them back togetherAnd take the pain awayBut I don’t have the ironAnd I don’t have the steel To wrap around your broken heartAnd teach it how to healSomewhere in the fire Somewhere in the pain I’d find the magic that I need To make you whole againI’d make the iron band so strongI’d make it gleam so bright I’d fix the things I’ve broken I’d turn my wrongs to right But I don’t have the steel To wrap around your broken heart Wish I could make it heal Wish I could make it heal (Ch. 27)”

“...Fran? Frances Hill, you stop that right now! What the devil's got into you? Ada, you should be ashamed! Braying like a mule, you are! And you, Mattie Gokey...would you like to tell me what could possibly be so funny?”

“I know it is a bad thing to break a promise, but I think now that it is a worse thing to let a promise break you.”