“She had come to Aka to learn how to sing this world's tune, to dance its dance; and at last, she thought, away from the city's endless noise, she was beginning to hear the music and to learn how to move to it.”

“I would rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.”

“She laughed when there was no joke. She danced when there was no music.
She had no friends, yet she was the friendliest person in school.”

“She said, "I wanna learn a love song full of happy things."
She said, "I wanna learn a love song; won't you let me hear you sing?"
She said, "I wanna learn a love song, I wanna hear you play."
She said, "I wanna learn a love song before you go away."”

“But first I was made to learn music, because music and dance go together. You can sing, but you can’t dance without music…”

“If there was one thing she was learning from all this, it was how easy it was to lose everything you had always thought you'd have forever.”

“And she is going to dance, dance hungry, dance full, dance each cold astonishing moment, now when she is young and again when she is old.”

“Dance with her, and she will forgive much; dance well, and she will forgive anything.”

“She laughed and danced with the thought of death in her heart.”

“Mary kept the belt of love, and oh, but she was gay!
She danced a jig, she sung a song that took my heart away.”