Place

"A night blooming cereus, the flowers only open for one night of the year and then they are gone."

- Taylor p. 248-249

Character

"What?" I said.

"Nothing."

I could see perfectly well she was smiling. "Come on what is it?".

"It's been so long.. you talk just like me."

- Taylor to Lou Ann p. 102

Metaphor

"It's like this," I told Turtle. "there's a whole invisible system for helping out the plant that you'd never guess was there." I loved this idea. "It's just the same as with people. The way Edna has Virgie, and Virgie has Edna, and Sandi has Kid Central, and everybody has Mattie. And on and on."

The wisteria vines on their own would just barely get by, is how I explained it to Tutle, but put them together with rhizobia and they make miracles.

- Taylor to Turtle p. 305

Quote of Novel

She watched the dark high- way and entertained me with her vegetable-soup song, except that now there were people mixed in with the beans and potatoes: Dwayne Ray, Mattie, Esperanza, Lou Ann and all the rest.

And me. I was the main ingredient.

- Taylor p.312