“I think I love you, Cal." -AbraI'm not good." -CalBecause you're not good." -Abra”

“Abra was ready ere I called her name. And though I called another, Abra came.”

“You're not clever. You don't know what you want. You have no proper fierceness. You let other people walk over you. Sometimes I think you're a weakling who will never amount to a dog turd. Does that answer your question? I love you better. I always have.”

“When you see good or bad in your children, you're seeing what you instilled in them after they cleared the womb.”

“I think when a man finds good or bad in his children he is seeing only what he planted in them after they cleared the womb.”

“Lee put his arm around the broad shoulders to comfort him. "You're growing up. Maybe that's it," he said softly. "Sometimes I think the world tests us most sharply then, and we turn inward and watch ourselves with horror. But that's not the worst. We think everybody is seeing into us. The dirt is very dirty and purity is shining white. Aron, it will be over. That's not much relief to you because you don't believe it, but it's the best I can do for you. Try to believe that things are neither so good nor so bad as they seem to you now.”

“Dessie's friends were good and loyal but they were human, and humans love to feel good and they hate to feel bad.”