“Damn, I’m proud to call you my best friend. You’re so strong and resilient with all you’ve been through, and then deciding to have a baby on your own like this. You’re my own little Steel Magnolia.”

“You seem like a strong-minded young woman. You’re very beautiful, too. I would have been proud to call you my daughter.”

“You have proven to be a true ‘Steel Magnolia, strong as steel with your roots planted deep in the southern soil. Remember to always bend with the wind. Although time may weather you, you will always be my beautiful Magnolia.”

“The amateur study of philosophy is like taking a few laps with a NASCAR driver. You’re not qualified to do it on your own, you have no business behind the wheel, but for a few laps or paragraphs, you’re right in there with ‘em, and when it’s all over, you’ve learned something. Or, as my local fire chief once said, you’ve simply exasperated the situation.”

“You’re so damn strong, Liv, and you don’t even realize it. I’m the one who’s always had to show people I’m successful, an achiever, the best at everything I did. I’m the one who’s always been a goddamn egotist. A groveler. And you…you’re the first person who’s ever…Christ, Liv, sometimes the way you look at me makes me feel like I can hang the fucking moon.”

“Because you know, I’m your best friend, but you’re just not that badass, man.”