“It is a merciful provision my dears, for it takes three or four women to get each man into, through, and out of the world. You are costly creatures, boys, and it is well that mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters love their duty and do it so well, or you would perish off the face of the earth,' said Mrs. Jo solemnly…”

“Well, hell,” muttered Drake. “Do you do that to all the human women?”“No. Usually they’ve already started taking off their clothes by now. She’s beginning to hurt my feelings.”“We need to get you a paper bag or a giant scar or something.”“Yeah,” said the man, his tone dry. “I’ll get right to work on that”

“Their point of resemblance to each other and their difference from so many American women, lay in the fact that they were all happy to exist in a man's world--they preserved their individuality through men and not by opposition to them. They would all three have made alternatively good courtesans or good wives not by the accident of birth but through the greater accident of finding their man or not finding him.”

“The Lord would want you to be successful. He would. You are His sons and His daughters. He has the same kind of love and ambition for you that your earthly parents have. They want you to do well and you can do it.”

“Hey, get off my sister,” Kieran barked from the other side.“Get lost, Black,” I called out. “And she’s not your sister.”“May as well be.”“Well, you stop kissing Solange and I’ll stop kissing Hunter.”Silence.""Chapter 24”

“I love you," she said wretchedly. “And if I were well, no power on earth could keep me away from you. If I were well, I would take you to my bed, and I would show you as much passion as any woman could.”