“laughter is cathartic and cleansing, that it's good for the body and the soul, and when it's real it's better than sex.”

“I hate jealousy. At least it's its own punishment; it makes me feel like hell.”

“I love the slow, warming sensation of my body going numb when I drink.”

“I was small enough to mind that Rudy had a good friend other than me.”

“What the hell is this stuff?" he muttered, frowning at the oily spot on the linen cloth. "Pearlman slathered it on me this morning.""It's macassar oil. Gentlemen use it to keep their hair neat. Nicholas used it," she added pointedly."Well, tomorrow he's giving it up. I smell like a rotten apple.""You do not. And I think it looks rather nice."He sent her an incredulous look. "I look like an otter. And everything I put my head against gets greasy.""That's why someone invented the antimacassar," she told him, almost smiling."The-aha!" He laughed as he made the connection. "Of course. First they invent something stupid, then something ugly to make up for it. We live in a wondrous age, Annie.”

“Little things. The thought of losing them makes them unbearably dear ... I only think of the sweetness. Simple things. The quarter moon, the taste of an orange. The smell of the pages of a new book.”

“Isabel never despaired, even though I think she knew everything that was going to happen, right from the beginning. There was a Walt Whitman poem she liked, especially the part that went - 'All goes onward and outward,/Nothing collapses/And to die is different from/What anyone supposes/And Luckier.' She tried to believe that, and it gave her some comfort, I know. She was very brave. Always. She hid her anguish and sadness, although I know she felt them. Because she wasn't losing only one person she loved - as we have. She was losing all of them.”