During the night, while Bull and Lucy slept, Edward, with ever-open eyes, stared up at the constellations. He said their names, and then he said the names of the people who loved him. He started with Abilene, and then went on to Nellie and Lawrence and from there to Bull and Lucy, and then he ended again with Abilene: Abilene, Nellie, Lawrence, Bull, Lucy, Abilene. See? Edward told Pellegrina. I am not like the princess. I know about love.

[Our first dinner with Alison McGhee] was at Figlio's [in Minneapolis]. I know exactly what I had, because it was so good: their three-cheese ravioli. But I can't remember what I said to Alison that night that made her laugh so hard. But she got me right away and I got her right away.

The image I had was very clear, and so in that way The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane began like other books.

There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.

If the world held magic powerful enough to make the elephant appear, then there must exist, too, magic in equal measure, magic powerful enough to undo what had been done.

[He] had the soul of a poet, and because of this, he liked very much to consider questions that had no answers.

The closest I can get to describing what happens is that voices come to me. I feel like I'm accessing something that is deeper and richer than me.