“And now everything has changed once again. The air of the Close each evening is full of bird song - I've never really noticed it before. Full of birdsong and summer perfumes, full of strange glimpses and intimations just out of the corner of my eye, of longings and sadness and undefined hopes. It has a name, this sweet disturbance. Its name is Lamorna.”

“My homeland has many palm-treesand the thrush-song fills its air;no bird here can sing as wellas the birds sing over there.We have fields more full of flowersand a starrier sky above,we have woods more full of lifeand a life more full of love.Lonely night-time meditationsplease me more when I am there;my homeland has many palm-treesand the thrush-song fills its air.Such delights as my land offersAre not found here nor elsewhere;lonely night-time meditationsplease me more when I am there;My homeland has many palm-treesand the thrush-song fills its air.Don’t allow me, God, to diewithout getting back to whereI belong, without enjoyingthe delights found only there,without seeing all those palm-trees,hearing thrush-songs fill the air.”

“Always there has been an adventure just around the corner--and the world is still full of corners.”

“My glass was empty. I poured more scotch into it, took a small sip, and all at once the silly thing was empty again. Strange. Then it was full again. And then it was empty again. Strange, I thought. Fool glass must have a hole in it. Scotch disappears the instant it's poured. Strange. Then I was stretched out on the bed, too tired and too drunk to bother removing my shoes. My eyes closed themselves and the world crept away on little cat feet, leaving me floating in the middle of the air.”

“Yet here we are, two children and a broken promise later, standing before each other, just the way we stood that day at the alter, with equal parts love and hope. And once again, I close my eyes, ready to take a leap of faith, ready for the long, hard road ahead. I have no idea how it's going to turn out, but then again, I never really did.”

“My full name is Lauren Lee Smith. Of all the names I could have been given, that's the one I got. Lauren Lee Smith. It has all the personality of a toaster.”