Alice suspected Paul couldn’t really picture his father, just like she couldn’t picture Paul when he was away. Maybe that was the case with people you wanted more than was good for you.

— Ann Brashares

A loving soul was always more beautiful over the long haul, but actual prettiness was fleeting.

— Ann Brashares

A part of her wanted to tell him she still loved him, and that even though this love was hopeless and long over, it still consumed her year after year. It was a tangled hairball of feelings, and she couldn't pull forth any one strand.

— Ann Brashares

Bridget cried for the leavers and the left. For the people, like herself, grimly forsaking what few precious gifts they would ever get. She cried for Bailey, for Libby, for the resolute clump of cells making headway in her uterus, and for Early, her poor, sad mother, who'd missed everything.

— Ann Brashares

Bridget's anger evaporated, and the sadness came back. The anger was easier. She owned and controlled it, whereas the sadness owned her.

— Ann Brashares

Bridget wondered whether it all came down to the claustrophobic choice between dying beautiful or living ugly.

— Ann Brashares

But I know this. We're ready to move forward again in our way. Together or apart, no matter how far apart, we live in one another. We go on together.

— Ann Brashares

But it was smell that carried memory.

— Ann Brashares

Carmen: “I want you to leave me alone, but not ignore me. I want you to miss me when I go away to college, but not be sad. I want you to stay exactly the same, but not be lonely or alone. Furthermore, I want to do the leaving, and not have you ever leave me.

— Ann Brashares

[Carmen] knew a worse friend would have made her feel better.

— Ann Brashares