“Anne was always glad in the happiness of her friends; but it is sometimes a little lonely to be surrounded everywhere by happiness that is not your own.”

“I'd rather be single, happy, and lonely sometimes than married, lonely, and happy sometimes.”

“Olive Ann describes Sanna as 'a perfectionist and a worrier.' She is obsessed with the idea of finding happiness, and for her, as Olive ann wrote in her notes for the novel, 'happiness means being first with somebody, having perfect, loving children...The theme of Sanna is disillusionment,' Olive Ann wrote. 'Her life is the pursuit of happiness and perfection, but she finds happiness and perfection impossible to obtain-her idea of happiness is constant joy, no changes.”

“Beer's nice for being glad and dizzy, and sometimes for the mystery and stuff, but the happy that comes out of a beer can is not like the real happy you got to make in your heart.”

“Sometimes friends have to suffer for their friends' happiness.”

“To wish for your own happiness is sometimes coupled with another person’s unhappiness. Since I couldn’t pray for my own happiness, I prayed to the moon in the night sky for the happiness of the one whose warm hand I held.”