In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.

In the secret pocket, she often kept a small pocket dictionary, which she would take out whenever she encountered a word she did not know.

If you try to avoid every instance of peer pressure you will end up without any peers whatsoever, and the trick is to succumb to enough pressure that you do not drive your peers away, but not so much that you end up in a situation in which you are dead or otherwise uncomfortable. This is a difficult trick, and most people never master it, and end up dead or uncomfortable at least once during their lives.

The Long Goodbye' is one book I like to read over and over again, and it was an enormous inspiration for 'All The Wrong Questions'.

Just because something is typed-whether it is typed on a business card or typed in a newspaper or book-this does not mean that it is true.

There are two types of panicking: standing still and not saying a word, and leaping all over the place babbling anything that comes into your head.

It is a miracle if you can find true friends, and it is a miracle if you have enough food to eat, and it is a miracle if you get to spend your days and evenings doing whatever it is you like to do, and the holiday season - like all the other seasons - is a good time not only to tell stories of miracles, but to think about the miracles in your own life, and to be grateful for them, and that's the end of this particular story.