The Shipping News by  E. Annie Proulx

We're all strange inside. We learn how to disguise our differences as we grow up

One of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music

For if Jack Buggit could escape from the pickle jar, if a bird with a broken neck could fly away, what else might be possible? Water may be older than light, diamonds crack in hot goat's blood, mountaintops give off cold fire, forests appear in mid-ocean, it may happen that a crab is caught with the shadow of a hand on its back, and that the wind be imprisoned in a bit of knotted string. And it may be that love sometimes occurs without pain or misery

You’ve got a chance to start out all over again. A new place, new people, new sights. A clean slate. See, you can be anything you want with a fresh start

You know, the Chinese have forgotten more about sailing than the rest of the world ever knew