The Secret Life of Bees

Lily Owens:
[to T. Ray] My whole life has been nothing but a hole, where my mother should have been. It always left me aching, but I never thought about what it did to you.

Lily Owens:
If your favorite color is blue, why did you paint the house pink?

August Boatwright:
[chuckles] That was May's doing. When we went to the paint shop, she latched on to a color called, "Caribbean Pink." She said it made her feel like dancing a Spanish Flamenco. I personally thought it was the tackiest color I had ever seen, but I figured if it could lift May's heart, it was good enough to live in.

Lily Owens:
That was awfully nice of you.

August Boatwright:
Well, I don't know. Some things in life, like the color of a house, don't really matter. But lifting someone's heart? Now, that matters.

Rosaleen Daise:
How come you all got names from a calendar?

May Boatwright:
Our mama loved spring and summer. We had an April too, but she... she died when she was little. [runs out of the room, sobbing and humming]

Neil:
*Walks up to June who slowly rises from her chair* Hi.

June Boatwright:
Hi.

Neil:
*pause* Did you call me here to talk? I am a little busy...

June Boatwright:
You ain't the only one who's busy, Neil.

Neil:
*voice rises in irritation* So I'm just supposed to stand here and watch how busy you are...

June Boatwright:
No! *Both turn away with a sigh*

Rosaleen Daise:
I feel like I've been beaten with a stick.

Lily Owens:
You have been beaten, remember?

Rosaleen Daise:
But not with a stick...

Zach Taylor:
Miss August told me about you being here helping out. She didn't mention anything about you being white.

Lily Owens:
Maybe she didn't notice.

Lily Owens:
You think something being an impossibility makes you think about it even more?

May Boatwright:
Like what?

Lily Owens:
I don't know. Like... kissin'.

May Boatwright:
That ain't impossible. When I was 15, I made a 7UP cake for this boy. After that, he kissed me all the time.

Lily Owens:
What'd it feel like?

May Boatwright:
Like I was gonna burst.

Lily Owens:
Miss May, I know you get real sad sometimes. My daddy never feels. He never felt anything. I had rather be like you.

May Boatwright:
A worker bee weigh less than a flower petal, but she can fly with a load heavier than her. But she only lives for or five weeks. Sometimes not feeling is the only way you can survive.

May Boatwright:
[noticing Zach smiling over a Lily] You want me to help you make a 7UP cake?

Rosaleen Daise:
I know you can't understand. Apologizing to those men would have just been a different way of dying. Except I had to live with it

June Boatwright:
Aw damn it to hell!

Lily Owens:
[First lines] I killed my mother when I was four years old. She was all I ever wanted and I took her away.