"(The unsatisfying thing about practicing restraint was that nobody knew you were practicing it.)" 
- Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

"It seemed they viewed her differently now.  She had status.  She mattered.  All at once they were interested in what she had to say. 

She hadn't fully understand that before this, she hadn't mattered, and she felt indignant but also, against all logic, gratified.  And also fraudulent.  It was confusing."
- Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

"The thought didn't disturb her.  She had used this room up, she felt.  She had used this life up." 
- Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

"There is no special word for 'you' when it is you that I am speaking to.  In English there is only one 'you,' and I have to say the same 'you' to you that I would say to a estranger; I cannot express my closeness.  I am homesick in this country, but I am thinking I would be homesick in my own country now, also.  I have no longer any home to go back to - no relatives, no position, and my friends have lived three years without me.  There is no place for me.  So I have to pretend I am fine here.  I have to pretend everything is...how you say?  Hunky-dory." 
- Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler