“Kathy Nightingale: What's good about sad? Sally Sparrow: It's happy for deep people.”

“... sometimes good people [are] helpless... terrible things happen... to good people... there [are] sad endings as well as happy ones.”

“It is not a bad thing to settle for the Little Way, not the big search for the big happiness but the sad little happiness of drinks and kisses, a good little car and a warm deep thigh.”

“They found themselves striding into the herald's square of a place called Mercutio before they could discuss whether it was nightingales or sparrows that sang so prettily in the woods.”

“Would you please just talk to me? Please?" Sally's voice was beginning to take on a high-pitched whine."Oh, good grief. For the love of healthy ears everywhere, quit your belly aching," Jen snapped, the clothes in her hands growing more wrinkled by the second. "Sally, there is nothing to talk about, okay? It is what it is."Sally threw her hands up in the air as she exhaled loudly. "No, it is not what it is, whatever the hell that means. It's a whole freaking lot more complicated than 'it is what it is.”

“Life is fundamentally sad, I think. But it's what makes the happy moments really happy.”