“I look up to say something but he puts his finger to my lips and whispers, Dont talk. Youll just spoil my fantasy of rescuing an innocent damsel in distress as soon as you open your mouth.”

“Im fine, Mom. Thanks for asking....Of course youre fine. She keeps walking. Youre the devils bride and these are his creatures....Im not the devils bride. He carried you out of the fire and is lett...”

“Was that you, Pooky Bear?”

“He is the one pocket of warmth in a sea of ice.”

“So thats your sister? asks Dee in a quiet voice.Yeah.The one you risked your life for?Yeah.The twins nod politely in that automatic way that people do when they dont want to say something insulting...”

“They always always understimate women”

“work at our responsibility as parents as if everything in life counted on it, because in fact everything in life does count on it.”

“Happiness [is] only real when shared”

“That's what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you're not so lovable.”

“Children betrayed their parents by becoming their own people.”

“But marrying within one's own family can get monotonous. One has heard all the same family stories, knows all the jokes and all the same recipes. No novelty.”

“She took comfort in the familiarity of his smell, knowing that if she lost all her possessions and her home, at least she would have her family.”

“There is a saying that bad traders divorce their spouse sooner than abandon their positions. Loyalty to ideas is not a good thing for traders, scientists - or anyone.”

“I was relying on youth be loyal to the specific variety of compromise and unhappiness, which our hard-won marriage represents.”

“It is not until an act occurs within the landscape of the past and future that it is a human act. Loyalty, which asserts the continuity of past and future, binding time into a whole, is the root of...”