Daniel Handler's a writer, musician and the author of, among other things, the "Series Of Unfortunate Events" books. He also wrote the TV version of the books that is available now on Netflix. As said, I recommend both media for this story.

One of the world's most tiresome questions is what object one would bring to a desert island,because people always answer "a deck of cards" or "Anna Karenina" when the obvious answer is "a well equipped boat and a crew to sail me off the island and back home where I can play all the card games and read all the Russian novels I want.

A girl meets a boy, Ed, and everything changes, or so she says.

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

It is difficult, when faced with a situation you cannot control, to admit you can do nothing.

If you know somebody very well, like your grandmother or your baby sister, you will know when they are real and when they are fake.

Various parts of my body told me that in the future they would appreciate it if I slept lying down on a bed instead of sitting at the counter of Black Cat Coffee. I quietly reassured them that this was an unusual situation, and had the machinery make me some bread as a breakfast.