“Then I am sorry I did not stay away longer I like being missed.”

“I am sorry, I am very sorry to ask you to lie," he said, so earnestly that I wondered if it hurt him to lie. That made him seem more like a god than a human being. If it hurt to lie, how could you stay alive?”

“I stay where I am for just one second longer, for one second reveling in the feeling of being held, touched with tenderness, even if it isn’t real.”

“No wonder Mama went away in her head when Clover passed on. And then Papa. I am going to visit my Mama tomorrow and tell her I am sorry for everything I ever did that caused her sorrow or worry, and for ever wishing, during those days, that she would come back. She probably wanted to stay there. It's a wonder she came back at all. If I knew how to make myself go away in my head, I declare I would.”

“The trouble is not that I am single and likely to stay single, but that I am lonely and likely to stay lonely.”

“You were this perfect, enchantingly beautiful girl that made the world brighter just by being in it, and you were ours. I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I drove you away.”