“Don't we all deal with life the way we do our military service? Doing what we can, while we wait either to be demobbed or do battle? Some will clean up the barrack-room, others will skive off, or spend their time playing cards, or trafficking, or plotting something. Officers command, soldiers obey, but no one's fooled by this comedy behind closed doors: one day, you'll have to go out there and die, officers and soldiers alike, the morons along with the crafty ones who smuggle toilet paper or deal in cigarettes on the black market.”

“Whenever one of you guys says people deal with bad stuff in their own way, it means you don't deal with it at all. You just wait for it to go away. You don't help. You don't listen. You don't call. You don't write. WE deal with it in our own way. WE deal with it. We girls. We make the meals and clean up the messes and take the crap and listen to you talk about how you're dealing with it in your own way. What way? No way!”

“All we can do is try, do our best. Give as much time as we have to give, one day at a time. One breath at a time”

“Life, he says, doesn’t have to be so bad all the time. We don’t have to be anxious about everything. We can just be. We can get up, anticipate that the day will probably have a few good moments and a few bad ones, and then just deal with it. Take it all in and deal as best we can.”

“We do what we must, we do what we are told, we do what is easiest. What else can we do but solve one sordid problem at a time? Then one day we look up and find that we are . . . this.”

“Why are we sitting way back here?""This way we can see the whole room and do some recon.""Great, here we go with the black op lingo. Were you a Navy SEAL or some special forces officer in a past life?" Sally asked."It's a gift. It comes so naturally that you think I've had formal training." Jen winked."Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. And, by the way, Hogwarts accepted you and is awaiting your arrival.""Ha ha, good one," Jen said dryly. "You have my vote – you'll be mayor in no time.”