Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect. We take what we get and are thankful it's no worse than it is.

She is the only dream I ever had that lived and breathed and did not die in the face of reality." (Ashley said about Melanie)

Times were so hard it was difficult to feed and lodge humans, much less animals.

But she knew that no matter what beauty lay behind, it must remain there. No one could go forward with a load of aching memories.

Say you’ll marry me when I come back or, before God, I won’t go. I’ll stay around here and play a guitar under your window every night and sing at the top of my voice and compromise you, so you’ll have to marry me to save your reputation.

Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything.

It had been so long since she had seen him and she had lived on memories until they were worn thin.