Honesty was a tough customer... Once you started allowing yourself some honesty, it couldn't easily be contained or limited to one part of your life. It was like poison ivy or a bossy houseguest. Once it was there, you couldn't tell it what to do. You had to really fight to keep it from taking over.
Ann BrasharesShe used to cry roughly three times a year. Now she seemed to cry three times before breakfast. Could that be considered progress?
Ann BrasharesYou know what the secret is? It's so simple. We love one another. We're nice to one another. Do you know how rare that is? - Carmen
Ann BrasharesIt was frustrating when people loved you and took an interest in you and sometimes worried about you and personally cared what you did with yourself. Lena wished that love were something you could flip on and off. You could turn it on when you felt good bout yourself and worthy of it and generous enough to return it. You could clip it off when you needed to hide or self-destruct and had nothing at all to give." (Lena, 194)
Ann BrasharesI don't have the life of a famous person. But I do feel like I've been able to connect with a lot of people.
Ann BrasharesThe rules took a while to sort out. Lena and Carmen wanted to focus on friendship-type rules, stuff about keeping in touch with one another over the summer, and making sure the Pants kept moving from one girl to the next. Tibby preferred to focus on random things you could and couldn't do in the Pants --- like picking your nose.
Ann Brashares