"Somehow however just knowing that I could fully expect unhappiness to return – if not predictably then nevertheless reliably – was strangely liberating. The point was that even chaos had a structure a beginning and eventually an end. It was possible to live through it. I’d been doing as much for twenty years."

"I'm very quiet. In the beginning, my brother would play the piano, and I would sing, because that's what my mom and dad did. And then along the way, somebody teased me for even thinking that I could get up there. That stayed with me, and I became very shy."

"How can this be real?” I whispered. “I mean you... You... Where you come from. Your world. It is so beyond everything I've ever known. And you would... You would take me to the Pumpkin Ball?”“Try and stop me."

"In eighty-six years, child, I've learned the world is a far more mysterious place than most people realize and that every moment of life is woven through with meaning."

"My heart's made of goldMy soul is pure steelLoved ones shall riseEnemies will kneelI soothe with water, attack with fireFor I am the master of my own empire."

"I would like to make fun plans with you, but then just do ordinary things; or plan ordinary things but find we have stepped through a wardrobe into a world of ordinary magic."