Hushpuppy: Strong animals know when your hearts are weak, and that makes 'em hungry. And they start comin'.
Hushpuppy: I hope you die and after you die I'll go to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself.
Hushpuppy: Everybody loses the thing that made them. It's even how it's supposed to be in nature. The brave men stay and watch it happen, they don't run.
Hushpuppy: I see that I am a little piece of a big, big universe, and that makes it right.
Hushpuppy: Sometimes you can break something so bad, that it can't get put back together.
Wink: I'm your daddy, and it's my job to take care of you, OK?
Hushpuppy: Back when Daddy used to talk about Mama, he says she was so pretty, she never even had to turn on the stove. She just walked into the room and all the water starts to boil.
Hushpuppy: They think we're all gonna drown down here. But we ain't going nowhere.
Hushpuppy: For the animals that didn't have a dad to put them in a boat, the end of the world already happened.
Hushpuppy: The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece... the entire universe will get busted.
Hushpuppy: I can count all the times I've been lifted. I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers.
Wink: My only purpose in life is to teach her how to make it.
Hushpuppy: When it all goes quiet behind my eyes, I see everything that made me flying around in invisible pieces.
Hushpuppy: It didn't look like a prison, it looked more like a fish tank with no water. They say that we were here for our own good.
Chosen answer: Both questions are left open-ended. It is unlikely, but not impossible, for Hushpuppy to have found her mother (although I believe the music playing at that moment is a hint that she is a look-alike). The beasts are supernatural creatures; up to you whether they are literal or in her mind.