“First Cooper and now Quinn, she had to stay off this porch, it was a dangerous place to be.”

“Quinn gave up thinking. If he could take his head off and shove it in a deep freeze right now, he would.’ – Quinn”

“F--- off. It's not like that. Her and me. I'm just saying--""That you hadn't left her for good. I never said you had. You just wanted to withdraw long enough to get used to the idea that you'd lost your chance. Lick your wounds, suck it in, and bounce back to being her friend and mentor, and be happy with just that.""I am happy with just that. It's all I want.""Is it? Or is that what you're telling yourself because you think you never had a shot in the first place? You'd better wake up fast, Jack, or she's going to settle for Quinn, and let me tell you, it's settling, because it's not Quinn she--”

“She stood before him on the porch now, as living, breathing proof that fortune had not tipped itself in his direction all those years ago.”

“Kindness was the last thing she needed. She had to stay in the icy place, the numb place, and their warmth threatened to melt her just when she needed the cold.”

“Someone had to go first, show that there was a life to be recorded here, that this place, this new set of possibilities, could inspire a new literature. Cooper set the signpost on the road, and hearty travelers have been following it ever since.”