The right circumstances sometimes happen of their own accord, slyly, without fanfare, without warning. Layman's alchemy. . . . The magic of everyday things.

If you want to know what's important to a culture, learn their language.

I'm phobic about the idea of being constrained.

I've nothing against kids reading anything they please, but I do have a problem with pink books for girls and black books for boys.

All those moments, those memories. Everything that we are, compressed in just two or three kilos of paper — the weight of a human heart.

You seem to know a lot about it," she said. "And you do subtleties." "Yeah. Like I've always wanted to destroy the Nine Worlds while committing suicide." "Well, there's no need to be rude," protested Sif.

A named thing is a tamed thing.