“To believe and yet to have no hope is to thirst beside a fountain.”

“She's no lady. Her songs are all unbelievably unhappy or lewd. It's called Blues. She sings about sore feet, sexual relations, baked goods, killing your lover, being broke, men called Daddy, women ...”

“I am burning. I have to live, I have to sing, I want to transform myself into a thousand different characters and carry their life with me onto the stage where it's so bright and so dark at the sam...”

“My first advantage: I have everything. My second advantage: this is just another island. My third advantage: I am bigger than it all.”

“Adelaide believes that all children should have enough grown-ups around who love them so that one can tell them to fight, one can tell them not to, and one can tell them not to worry so much.”

“Do you think there's such a thing as a ghost who masquerades as a person? Do you believe that there are people whose bodies are still alive here on earth but whose souls are already in hell?”

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of wi...”

“My dear,Find what you love and let it kill you.Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness.Let it kill you and let it devour your remains....”

“If you gave someone your heart and they died, did they take it with them? Did you spend the rest of forever with a hole inside you that couldn't be filled?”

“I love you best, and I'll miss you forever.”

“Oh, Caddy," said Saffron miserably."I know. It's awful. But I'm going. We all should.""It will be so sad.""You have to be sad sometimes," said Caddy. "Whatever Dad says. He may be right. Granddad p...”

“I never saw a dollar bill cry at anyone's funeral.”