“He loved Thelma, Jonathan said, he had never loved anyone but Thelma, he had loved Thelma for nineteen years and would always love her even though Thelma didn't give a rat's ass about him and never had.”

“He's a man," Themla said."I guess that explains it.""Hairy, Neanderthalic," Thelma said, "perpetually half-crazed from excessive levels of testosterone, plagued by racial memories of the lost glory of mammoth-hunting expeditions - they're all alike.”

“I find all men to be very much like wearing high-heeled shoes - I love how pretty they make me feel, but by the end of the night I can't wait to get rid of them .. Thelma Rae Goodpepper in Saving CeeCee Honeycutt”

“This is about Tessa. I knew it was." Will flushed, a wash of color across the pallor of this face. "Not just her.""But you love her."Will stared at him. "Of course I do," he said finally. "I had come to think i would never love anyone, but I love her.”

“She'd always known he didn't love her. But it was easier to bear when he didn't know she loved him. That way they were even. Now he knew he had all the power.”

“He had never smoked but then had he ever loved? Life made him love and love made him smoke.”