“Annie looked into his eyes with their blood-crazed whites and for the first time in her life knew how one might come to believe in the devil.”

“How do you destroy a devil to save an angel who’s torn out her own eyes to believe in only his whispered deceit in her ears?”

“I hoped that she knew the truth--that it wasn't her fault, or my fault, or even his fault. No matter how many times I wanted to believe it was. This was my life, and this is how it was ending.”

“What restless woman can resist a man with a shovel in one hand and a glowing rose bush in the other, and a moderately crazed glitter in his eyes that might be mistaken for love?”

“For the first time in my life I begin to understand how a parent might hit a child ..it’s because you can look into their eyes and see a reflection of yourself that you wish you hadn’t.”

“She looked so disappointed, so grieved and desperate that Clem longed to comfort her, only he couldn't think of thing to say that she hadn't heard a hundred times from Dad and Dr. Snow and Mrs. Mack: how things would get better in time, though no one knew how much time, and that life might be a little better for her and Jess once school began again.”