“She'd been a silly girl who'd dreamed of love, and a stupid girl who'd declared love a fraud; but she'd never imagined that when she found it,it would be richer, more powerful than dreams, and the impossibility of keeping it more painful than the worst betrayal.”

“She'd been a silly girl then, full of childish dreams. Sometimes she missed that young girl.”

“She'd once told me that I was probably the only person on earth who'd be given more than one soapbox in their lifetime because their first one had been worn out.”

“And a girl could give herself only in love. Mutual love. Otherwise she'd ruin herself for nothing. A girls body was a prize. It had to be more than asked for. It had to be earned, worshipped, and avowed.”

“It was that reader that she'd found in Mama's trunk. At the schoolhouse they had McGuffey, good lessons about good boys and girls. But Meggie had found the worn, faded book of fairy tales. They had been much more interesting than the stern admonitions of McGuffey. And her imagination had taken flight. Fanciful, that's what her father had called it. And when she'd read about Rapunzel, she'd decided that none of the local boys would ever do. A real prince was coming up the mountain for Meggie Best someday. She was sure of it. Unfortunately, this morning she'd thought that he'd arrived.”

“I didn't think there was any way to convinceJack that he wanted more than I had togive, that to people who'd been damaged theway I had been, fear and the will to survivewould always be more powerful than attachment.I could only love in a limited way”