The past is what you take with you.

Alternate history fascinates me, as it fascinates all novelists, because 'What if?' is the big thing.

They said love made you strong, but in Louise's opinion it made you weak. It corkscrewed into your heart and you couldn't get it out again, not without ripping your heart to pieces.

Ursula craved solitude but she hated loneliness, a conundrum that she couldn’t even begin to solve.

You must never believe everything they say about a person. Generally speaking, most of it will be lies, half-truths at best.

Julia's vocabulary was "chock-full" of strangely archaic words - "spiffing," "crumbs," "jeepers" - that seemed to have originated in some prewar girls' annual rather than in Julia's own life. For Jackson, words were functional, they helped you get to places and explain things. For Julia, they were freighted with inexplicable emotion.

I did feel when my mother died if anyone was going to haunt me it would be her. And she hasn't, so I think it is possibly the end.