“Life is so extraordinary. Wonderful surprises are just around the most unexpected corners.”

“A ring was the accepted sign of infinity, eternity. If her own life was that carefully described pencil line, she knew it all at once that the two ends were drawing close together. I have come full circle, she told herself, and wondered what had happened to all the years. It was a question, which from time to time, caused her some anxiety and left her fretting with a dreadful sense of waste. But now, it seemed, the question had become irrelevant, and so the answer, whatever it was, was no longer of any importance.”

“Happiness is making the most of what you have, and riches is making the most of what you've got.”

“Grief was like a terrible burden, but at least you could lay it down by the side of the road and walk away from it. Antonia had come only a few paces, but already she could turn and look back and not weep. It wasn't anything to do with forgetting. It was just accepting. Nothing was ever so bad once you had accepted it.”

“And the wicked thing is, that when we're really upset, we always take it out on the people who are closest and whom we love the most.”

“She believed, of course ... because without something to believe in, life would be intolerable.”

“I wasn't good enough. I had a little talent but not enough. There is nothing more discouraging than having just a little talent.”