“Well, you ought to stick with it, even after you mess up-but sticking with it is a lot easier if you have a family who believes in you.”

“Maybe I should be a lawyer instead of a magical baker, Rose thought. Lawyers' mistakes rarely result in old men climbing on top of towers and taking off their pants.”

“I know, I say, after he says, This is hard, for the third time. This is what happens when you have a TRM, I tell him. You make a mess. It's okay. You just have to try harder next time.I am trying hard, Dad says.I know. You get a sticker.Thank you.Okay. You get another sticker for being polite.”

“[Crisco] ain't just for frying. You ever get a sticky something stuck in your hair,like gum?...That's right, Crisco. Spread this on a baby's bottom, you won't even know what diaper rash is...shoot, I seen ladies rub it under they eyes and on they husband's scaly feet...Clean the goo from a price tag, take the squeak out a door hinge. Lights get cut off, stick a wick in it and burn it like a candle....And after all that, it'll still fry your chicken.”

“You do not have to see the air to know you breathe it. You do not have to see the truth to believe it and you do not have to have witnessed love to feel it.”

“if you don't have hope, you may as well croak!!”

“You’ll regret crossing me!’‘Richard, I regret meeting you. I think you can safely assume that I also regret everything after that as well.” (Smith 252)”