Ben remembered reading about curators in "Wonderstruck", and thought about what id meant to curate your own life, as his dad had done here. What would it be like to pick and choose the objects and stories that would go in your own cabinet? How would Ben curate his own life? And then, thinking about his museum box, and his house, and his books, and the secret room, he realized he'd already begun doing it. Maybe, thought Ben, we are all cabinets of wonders.

I think from an early age I was aware of how a camera can tell a story, how a movie camera can affect how the narrative is told.

Having an eye patch actually makes it easier to look through a camera - I don't have to close one eye like everyone else.

She walked to the rear door and took out a bobby pin from her pocket. Hugo watched as she fiddled with the pin inside the lock until it clicked and the door opened. "How did you learn to do that?" asked Hugo. "Books," answered Isabelle.

I think I always knew that I would do something with art because it was the one thing that I knew I was really good at.

Ben wished the world was organized by the Dewey decimal system. That way you'd be able to find whatever you were looking for.

Time can play all sorts of tricks on you. In the blink of an eye, babies appear in carriages, coffins disappear into the ground, wars are won and lost, and children transform, like butterflies, into adults.