Opera was an enormous part of my childhood. My parents were both opera buffs, and they met in the box seat of an opera performance. And I also was a boy soprano, so before puberty hit, I was onstage playing a wide variety of orphans and urchins in all sorts of operas, and the sheer melodrama of their stories was just always appealing to me.
Daniel HandlerMost schools have a loud system of loud bells, which startle the students and teachers at regular intervals and remind them that time is passing even more slowly than it seems.
Daniel HandlerTemper tantrums, however fun they may be to throw, rarely solve whatever problem is causing them.
Daniel HandlerIn this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.
Daniel HandlerThe quoting of an aphorism, like the angry barking of a dog or the smell of overcooked broccoli, rarely indicates that something helpful is about to happen.
Daniel Handler