“Just before the men closed the tail gate on the float, she strained her head to see me and nodded her head so hard her blonde mane flew around her faceshe looked like she was standing in a cloud of...”

“She simply stared at me with such a loving expression on her face, I felt like I was her foal. Indah reached her head as far as she could around me, to press me to her. I melted. How could I live w...”

“Peering around her, I took note exactly where the hundred metre high cliff started. i didn't want to be taking an unexpected flying lesson today.”

“You two would get on like a house on fire. Don't douse the flames before you've struck a match.”

“My mouth fell open in incredulity.Ah, Maria. Are you trying to tell me youve taken up the sport of fly-catching with your mouth?Ros reached over and lifted my chin.And an assistant too. So that you...”

“You weasel, good-for-nothing, scumbag, swine,sleazebag, scumbucket, scoundrel, son-of-a-bitch!In the midst of everything, we all looked at Rosina,who smiled sheepishly.Sorry. I was reading the Dict...”

“When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for t...”

“You know Balbec so well - do you have friends in the area?'I have friends wherever there are companies of trees, wounded but not vanquished, which huddle together with touching obstinacy to implore...”

“Things that matter are not easy. Feelings of happiness are easy. Happiness is not. Flirting is easy. Love is not. Saying youre friends is easy. Being friends is not.”

“With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.”

“Then Cassie told her story. The feeling was like gathering up everything she's ever done or felt or known up to that moment and tying it into a ball and pitching it with all her might as far away a...”

“Every woman needs secrets,' her mother said with a smile then, her eyes meeting Sally's in the rearview mirror. 'Remember that when you're old like me, pumpkin, because the world has a way of makin...”