“There can be a big difference between what you think is great and what you actually like.”

“I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be.”

“There’s a difference between what people think they need and what actually fulfills them.”

“A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening.”

“There is a very great difference — is there not? — between the temporal and the eternal judgments, a very great difference between a man's reputation and a man's character, for reputation is what men think and say of us, while character is what God and the angels know of us.”

“Olive. . . knows that loneliness can kill people - in different ways can actually make you die. Olive's private view is that life depends on what she thinks of as "big bursts" and "little bursts". Big bursts are things like marriage or children, intimacies that keep you afloat, but these big bursts hold dangerous, unseen currents. Which is why you need the little bursts as well: a friendly clerk at Bradlee's, let's say, or the waitress at Dunkin' Donuts who knows how you like your coffee. Tricky business, really.”