On the morning in question, she wore white shorts and a pink T-shirt that featured a green dragon breathing a fire of orange glitter. It is difficult to explain how awesome I found this T-shirt at the time.

Well," Peter Van Houten said, extending his hand to me. "It is at any rate a pleasure to meet such ontologically improbable creatures." I shook his swollen hand, and then he shook hands with Augustus. I was wondering what ontologically meant. Regardless, I liked it. Augustus and I were together in the Improbable Creatures Club: us and duck-billed platypuses.

For me, the hero’s journey is not the voyage from weakness to strength. The true hero’s journey is the voyage from strength to weakness.

I don't know why boys expect us to like boy movies. We don't expect them to like girl movies.

No reason to be angry. Anger just distracts from the all-encompassing sadness.

I hate the rich snots here with a fervent passion I usually reserve only for dental work and my father.

feeling - probably for the first time in my life - the fear and excitement of living in a place where you never know what's going to happen or when.