Why couldn't you let me have it? Why did you have to take it? Why did you always take everything?
Lauren OliverNo one can tell us no. No one can make us stop. We have picked each other and the rest of the world can go to hell.
Lauren OliverSo are you going to be my knight in shining armor or what?' Kent does a little bow. 'You know I can't resist a damsel in distress.
Lauren OliverAdditionally, Liesl and Po is the embodiment of what writing has always been for me at its purest and most basic--not a paycheck, certainly; not an idea, even; and not an escape. Actually, it is the opposite of an escape; it is a way back in, a way to enter and make sense of a world that occasionally seems harsh and terrible and mystifying. (From the "Author's Note" at the end).
Lauren OliverAnd this, really, is the story-within-the-story, because if you do not believe that hearts can bloom suddenly bigger, and that love can open like a flower out of even the hardest places, then I am afraid that for you the world will be long and brown and barren, and you will have trouble finding the light. But if you do believe, then you already know all about magic.
Lauren Oliver