If romantic love contained so much foolishness, waste, and want, why seek it out? It seemed a natural disaster on par with a hurricane--one would deal with it only if evacuation proved impossible.

Our reactions to most things are muddier than we admit. Yours don't have to be all good or all evil. They just are what they are.[Cole Doherty, to June Briscoe]

Vera always expected bad news; it was a trait they [Vera and Hap Briscoe] shared, the pessimism of people who have had their full share. Your mother's lost her job, your father's child support payment is late, your crazy brother has knocked out the principal's son, your mother is not speaking to your father again. Pessimism wasn't a negative trait for them. It was a way to consistently feel happier, each mediocre event a triumph over potential calamity.

He [March Briscoe] had been so preoccupied with his inability to control himself, he hadn't realize that even when you controlled yourself, you couldn't control other people.

...those absent can feel more present, do more damage, than any warm body in the room.

They smiled at each other, and Artie didn't so much recognize her attraction to this man [Ryan Barry] as recognize that she felt like a solid that had suddenly become liquid.

It's much easier to break a thing that has already been broken once. Mending rarely makes it stronger.

Being family just means we don't have the safety of fences between us.