“Well, sugar," she said, limping off, "don't be too hard on yourself. Now and again it's okay to let yourself off the hook."But that was the trouble, wasn't it? Letting himself off the hook had been his way of life.”

“Don't let yourself off the hook with excuses.”

“At some point, Alice slipped one arm and then the other into the coat's sleeves, she buttoned its buttons, starting at the top. Silas had followed her, still not seeing what an emblem of defeat, shame, loss, hopelessness, the coat was. With such gaps in his understanding, he saw very clearly how the boy he'd been had grown up to be the man he was.”

“What now?”Conrad didn’t let me off the hook that easy. He said, “What now with you and Jeremiah or with you and me?”

“it's funny how you can't exactly pick your crush. well, you can, but once it get hold of you, it's hard to shake off. ”

“The seat belt irked his father more than Uncle Colin's not eating meat, because, though his father never said it, Larry knew he considered seat belts cowardly.”

“Jennings is too tough and honest a writer to let anyone off her moral hook, even her hero.”