“The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present — they are real.”

“Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart.”

“I do think, half of what we call madness is just some poor slob dealing with pain by a strategy that annoys the people around him.”

“Poets speak of hope in ladies smiles, but give me a smirk any day, I say.”

“For Berry, you just be there, Whit. Be the one person in the wide green world she doesn't have to explain it to, because you were there and saw it all for yourself. Hand her a clean cloth if she cries or bleeds, and some warm thing for the pain that doubles her over. The time to hold her will come. This day isn't over yet.”

“Some men just aren't cut for paternity. Better they should realize it before and not after they become responsible for a son.”

“Some people grow into their dreams, instead of out of them.”