"Sometimes we love people so much that we have to be numb to it. Because if we actually felt how much we love them, it would kill us. That doesn't make you a bad person. It just means your heart's too big."

"If you're so great for being here, don't talk to me, either. Okay? Because I'm pregnant too."

"I just wanted to say how beautiful Bev looks tonight. And to wish her all the happiness in the world. Now that I've said it, maybe one of you could say it too."

"Do me a favor. Just pretend to be a good mother for two minutes. Just two minutes out of your whole life. Okay?"

"You're supposed to be the mother! I'm supposed to be the kid!"

"I can always tell if she's nervous, she wears a lot of make up. Today she's piled on an extra layer of nervous."

"If she was from the South, she would have turned her life into a country song. Since she's from Connecticut, she turned it into a book, a memoir."

"This is why therapists are so wealthy, moments like this. Why didn't he just get her the bra? It's certainly cheaper than a bicycle. Parents and the damage they can do, sometimes it's endless. But you know what they say: that which doesn't kill you makes you want to die."

"[to Jason] I used to feel real bad about leaving you and all. Then, a couple of years ago, your Ma sent me a letter, saying what a nice kid you were. What a good man you turned out to be. I'd like to think I had a lot to do with that...Even if all I did was stay away...it's still the best thing I ever did in my life."

"[reads from a letter] Dear Beverly, Please don't go crazy when you hear this. But I regret to inform you that I am a junkie. I spent all our money on heroin. I spent everything. I even spent the money for Jason's aspirin on a fix. It was just a tiny fix. But I spent that too."

"[to young Jason] You're gonna hear a lot of bad things about me, but only two of the three things are gonna be right. Okay? So when you hear something that's really, really bad...you try to think that's the one time they're wrong, okay?"

"My dad always said my head was hard as a rock. He broke his hand on it twice."

"[last lines] Jason blames me for everything that's happened in his life. Can you imagine?"

"I want to make something clear. I don't think I would've been better off without you. You are not what went wrong with anything. You were what saved me. I want to thank you for that. Okay?"

"I woke up this morning, truly believing that by this afternoon, my life would be different. Not only because it was my dream, but because l'd earned it. And now look at me. It's 3:30 in the afternoon, and I'm just another housewife yelling at her husband in front of the neighbours. Yeah, that's me!"

"[reading from a letter] Dear Mom and Pop, the immediate prospect of you reading this letter so shatters my spirit that it makes me a stranger to myself. Your fears over my behavior, which I thought arbitrary and unreasonably restrictive, seems now the stuff of wisdom. I have terrible news I've been withholding from you. But, like poison from an adder's tongue...I have to spit it out. I am pregnant. Perhaps after the anger for which you have every right to feel, you will remember I am the daughter you loved. Beverly."

"I didn't go past second base, which means nothing below the waist... my waist, not his."

"He's very handsome, so don't hit him in the face."

"Let me quote myself. [reading from her book] One day can make your life. One day can ruin your life. All life is, is four or five big days that change everything."

"For Christmas I'd like a bra, to enhance what I got, which is a lot more than that Melissa Thomas"

"[first lines] There on a windswept bluff, he stands waiting. The man of your dreams. The man who'II love you more than anything the rest of your life. You run to each other. Your bodies, your lips...they're coming closer and closer together. Until, finally...you kiss."

"Owen Davis Jr. - Gus Dorais"

"Nick Lukats - Harry Stuhldreher"

"William Byrne - Jim Crowley"

"William Marshall - Don Miller"

"Kane Richmond - Elmer Layden"

"William "Bill" Spaulding - Himself"

"Alonzo Stagg - Himself"