'Help me,' Allison says, but she is soft-spoken, and everyone she loves is so far away.

It is very difficult to make one's way in this world without being wicked at one time or another, when the world's way is so wicked to being with.

There are many, many types of books in the world, which makes good sense, because there are many, many types of people, and everybody wants to read something different.

The smell of cooking food is often a calming one.

Every problem has a solution. Sometimes it just takes a long time to find the solution - even if it's right in front of your nose.

It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things.

That night it felt that somehow by flicking them off the roof, the matches would burn down everything, the sparks from the tips of the flames, torching the world and all the heartbroken people in it.