All of a sudden America wasn't about hamburgers and hot rods anymore. It was about the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock. It was about something that had happened for two minutes four hundred years ago, instead of everything that had happened since. Instead of everything that was happening now!

Pregnancy humbles husbands. After an initial rush of male pride they quickly recognise the minor role that nature had assigned them in the drama of reproduction.

A girl's not a watermelon you plug a hole in to see if it's sweet.

Their desire was silent yet magnificent, like a thousand daisies attuning their faces toward the path of the sun.

The more she thought about it, the more Madeleine understood that extreme solitude didn't just describe the way she was feeling about Leonard. It explained how she'd always felt when she was in love. It explained what love was like and, just maybe, what was wrong with it.

Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind.

If Mitchell was ever going to become a good Christian, he would have to stop disliking people so intensely.