“She's smiling that smile they smile before they grow bosoms.”

“What does my smile look like now? Vivi wondered. Can you reclaim that free-girl smile, or is it like virginity- once you loose it, that's it?”

“You can't let fear of hurricanes stop your from putting seeds in the ground, even if they're going to grow tall only to be destroyed.”

“At the beauty of what she had stumbled onto, at the fear that something terrible would happen because she was not vigilant enough. She cried at the fear of something so good that she would not be brave enough to bear it.”

“She used to say she could taste sleep and that it was as delicious as a BLT on fresh French bread.”

“I try to believe," she said, "that God doesn't give you more than one little piece of the story at once. You know, the story of your life. Otherwise your heart would crack wider than you could handle. He only cracks it enough so you can still walk, like someone wearing a cast. But you've still got a crack running up your side, big enough for a sapling to grow out of. Only no one sees it. Nobody sees it. Everybody thinks you're one whole piece, and so they treat you maybe not so gentle as they could see that crack.”

“She breathed in the vast world of suffering and pure, dark love, and as she did, a well of compassion began to flow in her.”