“The bride will keep her name and, after considerable negotiation, the groom will, too.”

“It's daylight and I can see so many things I couldn't see back then. - Laney”

“Linda asked that morning what it was about Charlotte’s Web that Ally particularly liked; maybe it would help to think about that, since it was Ally’s model book. “I like the family that comes together in the barn,” Ally said without hesitation. “I like that they aren’t all the same thing; one is human and one’s a spider and one’s a pig. I like that it has nothing to do with blood relations, and everything to do with love.”

“...the state of Virginia had turned down twenty-one thousand women for admission to state colleges in 1970 while not turning away a single man...”

“Mommies can't look gross!' J.J. protested.”

“We didn't know each other well enough yet to risk mucking around in any real way in each other's lives.”

“we could hurt each other even when we weren't trying to, and that none of us was as perfect as we liked to pretend.”