“There is nothing fine about being a child: it is fine, when we are old, too look back to when we were children.”

“I looked back, but Bast and Sadie seemed fine. They were still staring at the water as if it were some amazing Internet video.”

“When we were children, we often played war. We had a fine collection of lead soldiers. My brothers would take different countries: Xavier had Italy; Pierre, Germany. Or they would swap around. Well, I, gentlemen, always had France.”

“When I left school, I had a list of priorities headed by 'marriage' and 'children'. That is how, I suppose, as a woman, you are brought up to think. At the same time, as I grew older, I told myself that if it happens, it happens, and that will be fine, but if it doesn't, that will be fine, too.”

“When we are children, we think that adults know how the world works. When we become adults, we know enough about the world to know that we know nothing about it…”

“When we say that “the world has ended,” remember—it is usually a lie. The planet is just fine.”

“Sticks and stones will break your bones, but now words can kill, too. This is how we must look to God. As if everything's just fine.”

“Sorry about the delay. We were having unholy connection problems of the damned. But things seem to be working fine now.”

“In the little world in which children have their existence whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice. It may be only small injustice that the child can be exposed to; but the child is small, and its world is small, and its rocking-horse stands as many hands high, according to scale, as a big-boned Irish hunter.”

“The polite thing would be to go back inside, give you privacy when you read it. But, I’m just not that mature.'
'It’s nothing. Fine.' Feeling foolish, Laurel opened the envelope.”