- Miss G: The most important thing in life is desire. You can achieve anything you want. The world is yours for the taking. Nothing is impossible for you, my girls. All you need is to desire it.
- Fuzzy: [reading letter] Dear team, please don't be cross with me for leaving you in the lurch. There is no place here for me now. And I feel with great certainty that I must chance to make a discovery of my own. I'm not sure I will come across elephants or crocodiles immediately, but I shall write to tell you the minute I do. You must look after each other now, and do your best to be fearless and true. Carry these notions forth into the world, because without you they will simply disappear. Don't fret, I will write soon. And PS, I promise to replace the shortbreads. Love, Di.
- Poppy: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: 'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.'
- Miss G: [Speaking to Fiamma] You're not like the other girls. They're still waiting for their lives to begin. But not you.
- Poppy: Did you tell him?
- Di: Yes.
- Poppy: Everything?
- Di: Not everything.
- Poppy: Did you mention the book?
- Di: And get Miss G into trouble? They don't understand art and culture. It's stupid to ban books that tell you the truth about life. I don't think it's wrong to want to know about the real world. We can't stay pure forever.
- Fiamma: [Fiamma hiding in a rowboat. Miss G walks up to her from the shoreline] Why must you follow me?
- Miss G: We didn't finish our conversation yesterday.
- Fiamma: I've nothing to say to you.
- Miss G: I see. You know, you really should make more of an effort to fit in.
- Fiamma: I will not be here long enough to fit in. My father will come and get me.
- Miss G: Of course, dear. But, you see, Laurel came for a term. So did Rosie. Fuzzy thought she was going to be a day girl. Only Di realized this is forever.
- Fiamma: It is not forever. They will leave you.
- [Fiamma rows the boat away. Miss G stands on the shoreline crying]
- Miss G: Girls, we are angels, eagles! To dive is to fly. Set yourself free of the shackles of conformity. Let nothing hold you back except the air itself. You are between heaven and earth. The rules no longer apply.