“Love makes you weak. Carin fer somebody that much means you cain't think straight. Look at Pa. Who'd wanna end up like him? I ain't never gonna love nobody. It's better that way.”

“We're on our own. An I feel calm. It seems crazy . . . but I'm calm. Because now I see what I gotta do. An what I ain't gotta do, which is waste time thinkin that anybody's gonna help us. That somebody's gonna come along an rescue us. I cain't count on nobody but me.”

“We ain't got time fer you to yell at me or fer me to tell you everythin that's happened, so I'm jest gonna cover the main points real quick an then I'm gonna kiss you, he says.”

“I never knew that missin somebody could hurt, I says. But it does. Deep inside. Like it's in my bones. We ain't never bin apart till now. Never. I dunno how to be without him. It's like... I ain't nuthin.”

“Lugh got born first. On Midwinter Day when the sun hangs low in the sky.Then me. Two hours later.That pretty much says it all.Lugh goes first, always first, an I follow on Behind.An that's fine.That's right.That's how it's meant to be.Because everthin'set. It's all fixed.The lives of everybody who's bin born.The lives of everybody still waitin'to be born.It was all set in the stars the moment the world began. The time of yer birthin, the time of yer death. Even what kinda person yer gonna be, good or bad.If you know how to read the stars, you can read the story of peoples'lives. The story of yer own life. What's gone, what's now an what's still to come.Back when Pa was a boy, he met up with a traveler, a man who knew many things. He learned Pa to read the stars. Panever says what he sees in the night sky but you can see it lays heavy on him.Because you cain't change what's written.Even if Pa was to say what he knew, even if he was to warn you, it would still come to pass.I see the way he looks at Lugh sometimes. The way he looks at me.An I wish he'd tell us what he knows.I believe Pa wishes he'd never met that traveler.If you seen me an Lugh togather, you'd never think we was the same blood.Never think we grew togather in the same womb.He's got gold hair. I got black.Blue eyes. Brown eyes.Strong. Scranwy.Beautiful. Ugly.He's my light.I'm his shadow.Lugh shines like the sun.That must of made it east fer them to find him.All they had to do was follow his light.”

“Life ain't black an white. People ain't neether. Family, friends, lovers. It's all a lot more complicated. The longer I live, the more I see, the less I know fer sure. Especially when it comes to matters of the heart. So dry yer tears. Whoever he is, he won't be cryin over you. Men never do. That's the one thing I do know fer sure. Now, muck up them boots a bit.”

“Pa? You never said. What'm I gonna be? Good or bad? He kisses the top of my head. Whispers in my ear, so's only him and me can hear. You, my darlin daughter, are gonna be somethin else entirely.”