Everything else has vanished, so you take them now. Maybe if you're the one keeping them, I'll be the one feeling better.

It looked exhausting and pointless, two things that should be avoided at all costs

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.

Never mind what my name is,” the man said. “No one can pronounce it anyway. Just call me Sir.

I was not a particularly brave child, I think, because I had a narrative mind, because my mind automatically went to any terrible thing that could happen.

Sometime during your life—in fact, very soon—you may find yourself reading a book, and you may notice that a book’s first sentence can often tell you what sort of story your book contains.

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.