“The truth is I'm getting old, I said. We already are old, she said with a sigh. What happens is that you don't feel it on the inside, but from the outside everybody can see it.”

“Don't take in no strangers while I'm gone.
She sighed deeply. They ain't a soul in this world but what is a stranger to me, she said.”

“Life Plan:
I asked her what she planned to do with her life & she said she was way beyond that point already. I'm just happy I remember to be there when it happens, she said.”

“Sage," he said. "What are you wearing?"
I sighed and stared down at the dress. "I know. It's red. Don't start. I'm tired of hearing about it."
"Funny," he said. "I don't think I could ever get tired of looking at it.”

“This is what happens when you get old. You start thinking. Worse, you start telling everybody what you think.”

“I don't see,' I said, 'how people stand being old. Your insides all dry up. When you're young you're so self-reliant. You don't even need much religion.”

“After a minute he said, "It's like-I don't know how to describe it, but it's like I belong with Jade. She really sees me. I mean, not the outside stuff. She sees me inside, and she likes me. Nobody else has ever done that…except you.”

““And us?” said the Hag. “What happens to us then? Will we be free?”
“That’s what we agreed.”
“We can go into extinction?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“More than anything,” said the Hag. “More than anything.”
“There are worse things than existence,” said Immacolata.
“Oh?” the Hag replied. “Can you name one?”
Immacolata thought for a short while.
“No,” she conceded, with a soft sigh of distress. “You may be right, sister.””

“I didn't squawk about the steak, dear. I merely said I didn't see that old horse that used to be tethered outside here.”

“The truth is the last thing that matters,' she said. 'And you can believe one thing of the truth and me: I keep it well hidden, inside my heart.”