“Sigh. Here's another fine woman that historians can't believe was real. Of course she was real. Not only is there a splendid Chinese poem called "The Ballad of Mulan", there is also an excellent cartoon by Disney.”

“If we leave that general descriptive talk where everything which looks like a poem can be called a poem and turn instead to normative talk, we will of course not recognize as a poem everything that looks like a poem. A real poem has to be a successful poem, a successful speech act. In approximately the same way that only a mathematical proof which really proves something can be called a mathematical proof. It is not enough that it looks like a proof. The proof has to prove. For the poem it is not enough to look like a poem. It has to achieve something.”

“A real woman can compliment and celebrate another woman's beauty, intelligence, passion, sex appeal, and creativity without compromise because a real woman understands that when she lifts her sisters up, it takes nothing away from her and she elevates herself in the process.”

“Like a cartoon world, where the figures are flat and outlined in black, jerking through some kind of goofy story that might be real funny if it weren't for the cartoon figures being real guys... ”

“Violet!' Lincoln said, then sighed. 'You don't love him. This isn't real. You know what's real and it's hard and it hurts and we can't...Damn it, Vi--we're real!”

“I can't tell if she's actually real, or if she's stopped caring if she's real or not. Or is not caring what makes a person real?”