“The world can be a hard place sometimes... You have to have heart. You have to be strong. Parents want their children to grow up to be strong. Not just any strong, mind you, but loving strong.”

“But you...are my sweetest gift. The life surprise that soothed all my ills and gave me my greatest joys. I feel so blessed you are mine.—Mama Ya-Ya”

“Women hand sight down through the generations. Mother to daughter.”

“It's the people who seem weak who are always suprisingly strong, and the ones who seem strong who are unexpectledly weak.”

“Hate is such a strong emotion. Much more powerful than indifference. But those who burn with hate can also love just as intensely. Can't they? When you hate--or love--do you do so with all your heart? So much that it feels as if you might die from it?”

“He was being called on to be a man, called up for service almost, except his country didnt need him, his lover did, and he felt proud and strong and ready to do whatever was necessary.”

“You can never hate strongly unless you have loved strongly.”