It is sometimes a mistake to climb; it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt.

Chantal is having a relationship with a sentence. Just one of those things. A chance meeting that grew into something important for the both of them.

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

One thing I've learned: you can know anything, it's all there, you just have to find it.

Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art.

It seemed to Coraline that it was crouching, and staring down at her, as if it were not really a house but only the idea of a house—and the person who had had the idea, she was certain, was not a good person.

The house smelled musty and damp, and a little sweet, as if it were haunted by the ghosts of long-dead cookies.