“The mother of a trophy wife is not automatically a trophy mother-in-law.”

“I had never seen a woman's breasts before, and I doubted if any seven-year-old boy in Craighead County had. Maybe some kid had stumbled upon his mother, but I was certain no boy my age had never had this view.”

“A battered wife is a married woman until she gets a divorce. Or until she kills the bastard.”

“She was pondering the option of law school, the great American baby-sitter for directionless postgrads.”

“Privileged people don't march and protest; their world is safe and clean and governed by laws designed to keep them happy.”

“I don't feel stupid, just inadequate. After three years of studying the law, I'm very much aware of how little I know.”

“Like a snake creeping through the undergrowth, I sneak into the law school well past noon and hours after both of my scheduled classes have broken up.”