I am not a storyteller . . . not like the others. I only have one tale to tell.

People might think writing is a hard business, but it's nowhere near acting.

She either confused me with a much older child or else she glimpsed deep inside my soul and perceived a hole that needed filling. I've always chosen to believe the latter. After all, it's the librarian's one sworn purpose to bring books together with their one true reader.

Nighttime is different. Things are otherwise when the world is black. Insecurities and hurts, anxieties and fears grow teeth at night. p493

... people who'd led dull and blameless lives did not give thanks for second chances.

Nell was not one for friends and had never hidden her distaste for most other humans, their neurotic compulsion for the acquisition of allies.

Adults weren’t supposed to understand their children and you were doing something wrong if they did.