Place

"The whole Tucson Valley lay in front of us, resting in its cradle of mountains. The sloped desert plain that lay between us and the city was like a plam streched out for a fortuneteller to read, with its mounds and hillocks, its life lines and heart lines of dry stream beds."

-Taylor; pg. 169

Character

"I don't know. How do I know? Just something. I feel like the pnly reason i have any friends at all is because I'm always careful not to say something totally dumb, and if I blow it just one time, then that's it."

"Lou Ann, honey, that's a weird theory of friendship."

-Lou Ann and Taylor; pg. 89

Metaphor

"But this is the most interesting part:wisteria vines, like other legumes, often thrive in poor soil, the book said. Their secret is something called rhizobia. These are microscopic bugs that live underground in little knots on the roots. They suck nitrogen gas right out of the soil and turn it into fertilizer for the plant.

The rhizobia are not actually part of the plant, they are separate creatures, but they always live with legumes: a kind of underground railroad moving secretly up and down the roots.

'Its 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.'Its the same with people. The way Edna has Virgie, and Virgie has Edna, and Sandi has Kid Central Station, and everybody has Mattie. And on and on.'

The wisteria vines on their own would just barley get by, is how i explained it to Turtle, but put them together with rhixobia and they make miracles."

-Taylor; pg. 241

Quote of Novel

"I guess the main thing I came up here to tell you is, I don't know how you go on, but I really hope you'll keep doing it. That you won't give up esperanza. I thought of that last night. Esperanzais all you get, no second chances. What you have to is try and think of reasons to stick it out."

-Taylor to Esperanza; pg. 156