I may die young, but at least I'll die smart.

I hated cranberry sauce, but for some reason my mom persisted in her lifelong belief that it was my very favorite food, even though every single Thanksgiving I politely declined to include it on my plate.

Colin had always preferred baths; one of his general policies in life was never to do anything standing up that could just as easily be done lying down

You cannot invent an algorithm that is as good at recommending books as a good bookseller.

He loved the scratching of pencil against paper when he was focused: it meant something was happening.

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.

You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.