Not just beautiful, though--the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me.

And her sleep was too long and deep for that:so deep that she left her normal reality behind.

I’ve built a wall around me, never letting anybody inside and trying not to venture outside myself

Adults need more complex narratives. They have their own narratives. The main characters are themselves.

No matter how clear things might become in the forest of story, there was never a clear-cut solution, as there was in math. The role of a story was, in the broadest terms, to transpose a problem into another form. Depending on the nature and the direction of the problem, a solution might be suggested in the narrative. Tengo would return to the real world with that solution in hand. It was like a piece of paper bearing the indecipherable text of a magic spell. It served no immediate practical purpose, but it contained a possibility.

Sheep hurt my father, and through my father, sheep have also hurt me.

It's basically impossible for everybody's justice to prevail or everybody's happiness to triumph, so chaos takes over.