“Because Patty Anne can’t handle living on her own. She can barely handle not setting herself on fire when she makes soda bread. My Gwenie doesn’t have that problem.” “Because she hates soda bread?”

“She hated her job the same way I hated my jobs because she knew she was worth more, but she also hated herself so there wasn't much point in trying to do better.”

“You have to gooo," Lacey says."She doesn't have to," Noah says. "If she can't handle it, she can't handle it.”

“I hate you. I hate you like the girl who hates cake because it makes her fat and she can’t stop eating it.”

“When I observe Gram, I see how fragile the notion of tradition can be. If I take my eyes off the way she kneads her Easter bread, or if I fail to study the way she sews a seam in suede, or if I lose the mental image I have of her when she negotiates a better deal with a button salesman, somehow, the very essence of her will be lost. When she goes, the responsibility for carrying on will fall to me. My mother says I’m the keeper of the flame, because I work here, and because I choose to live here. A flame is a very fragile thing, too, and there are times when I wonder if I’m the on who can keep it going.”

“I hated it when literally was used for non-literal things. I popped the tab on my soda can and returned her grin. Over my dead body... literally.”