The flagpole that had flown at half-mast the day Cecilia died, though it had been summer and no one but the lawn crew had noticed - The Virgin Suicides

The girls were right in choosing to love Trip, because he was the only boy who could keep his mouth shut.

We realised that the version of the world they had rendered for us was not the world they really believed in, and that for all their caretaking and bitching about crabgrass, they didn't give a damn about lawns.

Everybody had a story as to why she tried to kill herself. Mrs. Buell said the parents were to blame. "That girl didn't want to die," she told us. "She just wanted out of that house." Mrs. Scheer added, "she wanted out of that decorating scheme."