“There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.”

“It is a bad thing to have love and nowhere to put it.”

“Oh, my goodness, said Louisiana. Im just all filled up with feathers and regrets. And fears. I have a lot of fears.”

“You can't always judge people by the things they done. You got to judge them by what they are doing now.”

“Reader, do you think it is a terrible thing to hope when there is really no reason to hope at all? Or is it (as the soldier said about happiness) something that you might just as well do, since,in ...”

“And hope is like love...a ridiculous, wonderful, powerful thing.”

“I love and care for everyone because I know the pain of being unloved and uncared.”

“I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.”

“Do only work that matters, and you will end up pleasing those who are important enough to care about it.”

“Despereaux was reading the story out loud to himself. He was reading from the beginning so that he could get to the end...”

“This is a wonderful joke to play upon a prisoner, to promise forgiveness.”

“Besides, who ever asked you what you wanted in this world, girl?The answer to that question, reader, as you well know, was absolutely no one.”

“That's how it is with want. As long as you lack something you yearn for it without cease. if only I could have that one thing, you tell yourself, all my problems would be solved. But once you get i...”

“Alice suspected Paul couldnt really picture his father, just like she couldnt picture Paul when he was away. Maybe that was the case with people you wanted more than was good for you.”

“I want, I dont want.How can one live with such a heart?”