"Evie ate on, a plumb drab girl in a brown sweater that was running to balls at the elbows" (Chapter 1, p. 3).

"I lie on my bed arguing with the strings, like, and sooner or later something comes out. Then my fingers get to hammering, reason they call me Drumstrings" (Chapter 1, p. 7).

"Can you see me going up with those others? I would be planning it ahead, smoothing down my skirt, tucking in my blouse, saying something memorized that would come out backwards, in a reading tone of voice" (Chapter 3, p. 33).

"He entered with his head leading, just as he entered his classroom while students whispered and passed notes and ignored him" (Chapter 4, p. 41).

"Food she didn't enjoy, Evie thought, was not fattening" (Chapter 5, p. 62).

"Her dowdy clothes gave her a matronly look; her scars, what could be seen of them, seemed in the candlelight to be mainly vertical...