“..it's not how much you work, but how working so much makes you feel that counts. And how I felt was iserable.”

“I'm a hoyden, my mother works, I enjoy fixing things and playing in the dirt." Her words got faster as if they might fade away into nothing if she didn't get them out quick enough. "You're from a respectable family and now I find out you're a prince, and you know how that always ends in the stories-" His warm lips met hers.(...)He gazed into her eyes with an intensity that made her soul burn."Those are just stories, Noli. This is real." Then he kissed her again.”

“Miss Gregory took nearly everything. Her clothes. New girls don't have the privilege of wearing their own clothes. Her books. Socrates, Plato, Shakespeare? Much too stimulating. No wonder you have Ideas. Certainly, you don't wish to become a bluestocking!”

“No, I didn't thank them, but I forgot with you. I still see you as V, as my best friend, not some prince, even an exiled one. It still sounds so strange.""I only want to be V when I'm with you. Though I have to say," his eyes met hers as a smile played on his soft, kissable lips. "I'd like to a be a little more than your best friend." Taking her hand, he kissed her palm, a slow, lingering kiss that left her gasping for breath even though his lips were nowhere near hers."What?" The word caught in her throat."Did you dream of me, Noli?" His lips brushed her ear. "I dreamt of you.""I did. They were..." Her toes curled at the memory of her dreams, those kisses. "Pleasant.""Pleasant? I seem to remember them being far more then merely pleasant." His green eyes danced in amusement.”

“What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are but how you deal with incompatibility.”

“After all my work to make something of myself how do you think I feel when I see how disappointed you are in me? When you find fault with me every time I so much as turn around?”

“I may have overmothered you and screwed you up in ways large and small, but I think it’s time you took some measure of responsibility for where you choose to put your own penis.”