“For the Phantom, there is only one girl. For Sam, there is only one horse.”

“The waves, the girl in the rain, and that awful, blood-begotten stom. Blood and love and loss.”

“Listen twice as much as you talk, since you were born with two ears and one mouth.”

“It's true that the two halves were no longer hinged. They weren't clinging to each other, but each was a cream-colored wing with a rosy flush inside. I held one half in each hand. If I took this shell across the room or across the universe, and the other one stayed here, they'd still be two halves of a whole, and anyone would know they belonged together.”

“I was doing it again, and I do NOT ogle strangers.”

“The best words I ever heard about making your own reputation," Gram said, looking over her shoulder into the back seat, "is that you come into the world crying while everyone is smiling at the miracle of you, and you should live your life so when you leave it, you're smiling, but everyone else is crying because the miracle of you is gone.”

“And there was no way to unsay words you'd blurted out, no matter how sorry you were.”