“When a husband stops paying attention to the garden, he's thinking of pulling up roots.”

“Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever.”

“And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all the truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters ...”

“It's not that we had no heart or eyes for pain. We were all afraid. We all had our miseries. But to despair was to wish for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable...What ...”

“Only you pick that crab. Nobody else take it. I already know this. Everyone else want best quality. You thinking different.”

“And now at the airport, after shaking hands with everybody, waving good-bye, I think about all the different ways we leave people in this world. Cheerily waving good-bye to some at airports, knowin...”

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength. Corrie ten Boom”

“Worry is a down payment on a problem you may never have. It doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, just empties today of its strength.”

“Past tears are present strength.”

“...I gave you painted air - tears I couldn't weep - truths I couldn't speak - all the words that caught in my throat...”

“He wept, and it felt as if the tears were cleansing him, as if his body needed to empty itself.”

“Prim, let go," I say harshly, because this is upsetting me and I don't want to cry. When they televise the replay of the reapings tonight, everyone will make note of my tears, and I'll be marked as...”