“Hon, when someone's a true friend, there's no need to miss 'em." She patted her chest. "'Cause they're always right here.”

“Friends--or lovers--are not always available to each other. Inner turmoils can cause us to be unhearing when someone needs us, to need to receive understanding when we should be giving understanding.”

“My auntie Nora right, all her food is mashed. She's got teeth but she don't need 'em [Karl on how his auntie blends her food and never uses her teeth]”

“I miss him in so many ways, but right now I miss him in the way you always miss someone when you're single among a room full of couples.”

“She curled up and pressed her cheek against his chest. Her ear was right above his heart. She was listening to his thoughts. "I need to know this," Aomame said. "That we're in the same world, seeing the same things.”

“Seems like even her old girlfriends
Might be talking her down.
She's got her name on the grapevine
Running up and down
The telephone line
Talking 'bout
Someone said, someone said
Something 'bout, something else
Someone might have said about her
She always figured that they were her friends
But maybe they can live without her.”

“Do you miss her?'
'Who? Emma? Of course. Every day. She was my best friend.”

“You can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family, an' they're still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge 'em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don't.”

“For as much as I hate the cemetery, I’ve been grateful it’s here, too. I miss my wife. It’s easier to miss her at a cemetery, where she’s never been anything but dead, than to miss her in all the places where she was alive.”

“Paddy Ashdown: …this is an agreement which the right hon. Lady will be entitled to regard with a certain pride and satisfaction as she looks back on the twilight days of her premiership…”