It's still National Library Week. You should be especially nice to a librarian today, or tomorrow. Sometime this week, anyway. Probably the librarians would like tea. Or chocolates. Or a reliable source of funding.

Bod was thrilled. He imagined a future in which he could read everything, in which all stories could be opened and discovered.

I think I love my dreaming process because one of the things that my dreaming process does is sort out stories for me.

Do not lose hope — what you seek will be found. Trust ghosts. Trust those that you have helped to help you in their turn. Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story. (from 'Instructions')

Until that moment she had never thought she could do it. Never thought she would be brave enough or scared enough, or desperate enough to dare.

The wise man knows when to keep silent. Only the fool tells all he knows.

You know, I'm normally so sanguine. But... being accused of rushing these two books out to cash in on the Newbery Medal, without access to time travel equipment or anything, just makes me want to bang my forehead gently against a tree for half an hour. Is it too much to ask people to think?