- [a rather glum and depressed group is sitting around Lwaxana Troi]
- Lwaxana Troi: Odo! Won't you join the party?
- Odo: Actually, I have some free time, and I was... wondering if you wanted to take a walk.
- Lt. Commander Worf: [apathetic] I would.
- Odo: [at his Tavnian wedding] Before I met her, my world was... a much smaller place. I kept to myself; I didn't need anyone else; and I took pride in that. The truth is... I was ashamed of what I was. Afraid that if people saw how truly different I was, they would recoil from me. Lwaxana saw how different I was - and she didn't recoil. She wanted to see more. For the first time in my life, someone wanted me as I was. And that changed me... forever. The day I met her... is the day I stopped being alone. And I want her to be part of my life from this day on. Marry me, Lwaxana. Let me into your light.
- Lwaxana Troi: Someone once said: "Life is a search to find the peace you once had when you were safe inside your mother".
- Odo: I didn't have a mother.
- Lwaxana Troi: [long sigh] Don't worry, it's all right. You'll find your peace... just the same.
- Lwaxana Troi: Don't go do what I did. Look for someone to fix your broken heart, then end up pregnant and on the run.
- Odo: I... don't think there's much danger of that happening.
- [Odo has proposed to Lwaxana to marry him in a Tavnian ceremony]
- Lwaxana Troi: In a Tavnian wedding, the groom must stand before the bride and tell her why he wants to marry her. And then, in front of his family and friends, he must proclaim his love for her and convince her to accept him as her husband.
- Odo: Well, I trust I can count on you to accept me even if I just stand there and read last week's criminal activity report.
- [first lines]
- PADD Computer Voice: Recording.
- Jake Sisko: Character sketches for possible stories: a Bolian tries to impress a dabo girl by wearing a toupee. A thief disguises himself as a monk, so he can swindle a Ferengi. A woman, traveling alone. She's come a long way...
- Captain Sisko: What are you?
- Onaya: It's not what I am that matters, it's what I do. You don't know the minds I've touched: Catullus, Tarbolde, Keats, a hundred others. I unlocked their potential.
- Captain Sisko: Is that what you did to Jake? Look at him!
- Onaya: They all die in the end, but look what I gave them in return: immortality. Their names will live on forever.
- Captain Sisko: [about Jake's novel] It's really good.
- Jake Sisko: I know. I just wish I wrote it.
- Captain Sisko: You did.
- Jake Sisko: How can I be sure? I mean, without Onaya...
- Captain Sisko: Listen to me. You wrote these words, not her.
- Jake Sisko: But she got them out of me.
- Captain Sisko: Which means, they were somewhere inside of you. And all you have to do is to learn to find them for yourself.
- Odo: How are you feeling now?
- Lwaxana Troi: Like a Changeling who's had to hold his shape too long.
- Odo: Ah. Well, I, uh... I think I know how that feels.
- Lwaxana Troi: May I ask you something, Odo? Are you over her? Don't worry - I'm not going to throw myself at you if you say yes.
- Captain Sisko: You've got a good start on a novel here, Jake. The dialogue is sharp, the story's involving, the characters are real... the spelling is terrible!
- Quark: Ladies and gentlemen, please do me the honor of accompanying me to my humble establishment. I'm throwing a party for the happy couple!
- Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax: [surprised] Quark!
- Quark: What can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic.
- Lwaxana Troi: I can't help it, I'm still in love with you. And as much as I wish that you were in love with me, I know you're not.
- Onaya: [of Jake] He was the youngest I ever found. So eager, ready to give everything he had in one great burst. What a waste. I will never forget you, Jake.