“Romeo wouldn’t change his mind. That’s why people still remembered his name, always twined with hers”

“The problem is that when you change Romeo and Juliet’s story it ends up like that ridiculous Taylor Swift song. And that’s not what people love about Romeo and Juliet.”

“Norah looked at her son’s tiny face, surprised, as always, by his name. he had not grown into it yet, he still wore it like a wrist band, something that might easily slip off and disappear. She had read about people – where? she could not remember this either – who refused to name their children for several weeks, feeling them to be not yet of the earth, suspended still between two worlds.”

“Why not? Why not anything? If God ain’t a God of why nots, than I say ‘Why bother,’ and I don’t think that’s takin his name in vain, I think it’s tellin the truth about what people need.”

“Any man for her had better be well-dressed, well-groomed, and well-hung, and if he couldn’t get her off at least twice with his mouth, she wouldn’t return his calls. Couldn’t imagine why she was thirty-nine and still single.”

“His name is Arnold. But you’re not on a first name basis with him, and that’s not his first name. So that’s Mr. Arnold to you. Once you get to know him, he may let you call him by his first name, which is Grafmiller. His middle name is his wife’s maiden name: Maiden. Their maid’s first name is Maiden, and her last name is America. Maiden America, though I think she was made in China.”