“Dr. Klein like to say that gardens are for growing people, but we must not forget: People are for growing gardens.”

“That's why we call them belongings, because they give us a sense of belonging to something when we've left behind one life and have no compass to guide us through the next.”

“Food, particularly chocolate, at a time of grief or crisis is never a mistake.”

“People grow couches and bikes and concrete in their front gardens instead of roses.”

“Later, the talk turned to all the other guys/girls who were currently hot for the two of them. 'There's this total dweeb named Robert who's always calling me, and I feel bad because he's really nice, but I'm totally not interested,' Phoebe told Pablo.'Believe me, I know what that's like,' Pablo told Phoebe. 'There's this girl at Hunter who's, like, obsessed with me. She's, like, this big fat girl. Ass like a truck. She's always writing me these love letters. Maybe I should fuck her. You know, just to be nice.' (Smile, smile.)'You're so bad.' (Phoebe shaking her head; Pablo loving it; Phoebe loving it, too. What was more ego-enhancing than making dumb jokes at the expense of ugly women? Phoebe could never decide whom she hated more--other people or herself.)”

“He even knew the reason why: because enough men had gone off to war saying the time for gardening was when the war was over; whereas there must be men to stay behind and keep gardening alive, or at least the idea of gardening; because once that cord was broken, the earth would grow hard and forget her children. That was why.”

“Things are really fucked up right now. We hardly see each other anymore and when we do, we go to sleep on opposite sides of the bed”