“Edward knew what it was like to say over and over again the names of those you had left behind. He knew what it was like to miss someone. And so he listened. And in his listening, his heart opened wide and then wider still. (page 103)”

“It was only then, raising my water glass in his name, that I knew what it meant to miss someone who was so many miles and hours away, just as he had missed his wife and daughters for so many months.”

“And Edward was surprised to discover that he was listening. Before, when Abilene had talked to him, everything had seemed so boring, so pointless. But now, the stories Nellie told struck him as the most important thing in the world and he listened as if his life depended on what she said." (page 69)”

“So he decided he would never listen to anybody he knew? That's just like someone in a fairy tale.'Knowing he had given his trust amiss, how could he bestow it again?'That's foolish. Did he expect never to make any mistakes?”

“Edward was dead. The magnitude of the news reverberated through me, thickening the air. His suffering was over. Yet what had he left behind? An England torn between Catholic and Protestant.”

“I'm listening to someone give up. Someone I knew—someone I liked. I'm listening... but still, I'm too late.”