Life isn't fair," he said, in his undisguised voice, and for once the Baudelaire orphans agreed with every word the man said.

It is useless for me to describe to you how terrible Violet, Klaus, and even Sunny felt in the time that followed. If you have ever lost someone very important to you, then you already know how it feels, and if you haven't, you cannot possibly imagine it.

The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done.

But the world did not match the picture in my head, and instead I was with a strange, uncombed person, overlooking a sea without water and a forest without trees.

Having an aura of menace is like having a pet weasel, because you rarely meet someone who has one, and when you do, it makes you want to hide under the coffee table.

I decided that it might be interesting to have terrible things happen to orphans over and over again.

No reality has the power to dispel a dream.