“We must keep this a perfect secret.”

“It was delicious to have someone to keep secrets with”

“Oh, it was delicious to have someone to keep secrets with. If I'd had a sister or a brother closer in age, I guessed that's what it would be like. But it wasn't just smoking or skirting around Mother. It was having someone look at you after your mother has nearly fretted herself to death because you are freakishly tall and frizzy and odd. Someone whose eyes simply said, without words, You are fine with me.”

“Some things I just got to keep for myself.”

“That's the way prayer do. It's like electricity, it keeps things going.”

“Cause that's the way prayer do. It's like electricity, it keeps things going.”

“I always order the banned books from a black market dealer in California, figuring if the State of Mississippi banned them, they must be good.”