Each of them always gravitating toward the other. Yet still they do not touch.

The boy spends most of his time reading. And writing, of course. He copies out sections of books, writes out words and symbols he does not understand at first but that become intimately familiar beneath his ink-stained fingers, formed again and again in increasingly steady lines.

I don;t think there's anything wrong with being a dreamer. There is not. But dreams have ways of turning into nightmares.

Sting told me if I love somebody I should set them free. I doubt Sting ever loved anyone with wings. If he did he might rethink such a stupid sentiment. I suppose the point is to wait for your love to come back to you voluntarily. I wonder if there’s a difference between setting something free and letting it go? I probably did it wrong. I should stop taking advice from my radio. I worry that you’re lost. I keep a heart-shaped cage unlocked for you, out on the street where it can easily be seen. So if one day you return at least you’ll have a place to stay.

Is magic not enough to live for?

Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon . . . is not the dragon the hero of his own story?

We cannot go backward,' Marco says. 'A great deal is not how it used to be.