[W]hat should I have done? Gather dirt in my purse?

...I've been told that this building is here waiting for me. It's been my Buckingham Palace, my White House, my Taj Mahal, so coming here today as a real member is - well, it's a big deal.

...while you've never heard of her, in my mind she's practically a celebrity.

I've always liked Anna, but according to my mother, her family is complete New Money, and my grandmother has pointed out on several occasions that they're not even really Southern.

There is life and there is death, but on the border, where one shades into the other, there is the In Between. "...[M]ost people go through life without even knowing that it's there.

I'm named after my great grand-mother...while you've never heard of her, in my mind she's practically a celebrity.

You won't be able to find it out for yourself in any library or archive, either, because my grandmother has carefully and systematically destroyed every shred of evidence.

If not for her truly sparkling personality, she would have been doomed.

[W]hat my grandmother and my mother and I all know is that our beauty is no miracle. It is bought and paid for.

[M]y grandmother...had always complained that our house didn't have a profile that was "significant enough.

...he went off to Paris. Actually, I don't know for sure that Paris is where he ended up.

There you are! Aren't you precious?

She's as common as pig tracks. Just her being here lowers the tone of the entire city.

Magnolia leadership isn't a given. Not forever. You have to earn your spot.

[W]ithout the League, you'd be nothing.

My membership has given me everything I've ever wanted.

...[D]espite the concoction's disgusting lecture, it's cleared every blemish from my face, as promised. I am a Buzzard-created beauty, head to toe.

[A]s if enjoying a last, drawn-out supper, he sips on Alexandria's shadows.

The heartache of your brother and your best friend? I mean, Hayes if it's not your business, then whose business is it?

But what if Alex changes it all around?...Where does that leave you?...But really...what if she's right?

[M]y grandmother and I sit across from each other at the Gryphon Tea Room, on the grandest section of Bull Street.

As a Magnolia, you are always onstage.

I'm sorry. I just meant that all this is new to me. I get lost sometimes." I give her my most honest expression.

The fact is I'm in a serious jam.

I can't help frowning. "But Madison designed that cocktail dress herself...

You are in training, and therefore your personal taste and opinions are not to be trusted until they are fully and reliably shaped - by me.

Fantasy games are unbecoming to a lady, she says, closing the subject. "And the idea that you would even dream of spending time with some strange boy when you could be reinforcing your relationship with your Magnolia compatriots leaves me breathless. You are going to have to earn the respect of the other girls.

...[O]ne of the first things a Magnolia League debutante learns: Keep your thoughts and opinions to yourself.

[D]ear...You just charmed the pants off her with that hunting trip!

As if I were the funniest, weirdest girl in the world - that's how he used to look at me.

Every nerve in my body says to run after Thaddeus and tell him everything. But I know there's no way he can know the truth.

It's been my Buckingham Palace, my White House, my Taj Mahal, so coming here today as a real member is - well, it's a big deal.