Adults should not weep, I knew. They did not have mothers who would comfort them.

All your questions can be answered, if that is what you want. But once you learn your answers, you can never unlearn them.

Books are defensive, not offensive (unless you're the puzzled adult trying to make the kid with the book interact).

Often you will discover that the harder you work, and the more wisely you work, the luckier you get. But there is luck, and it helps.

If not for Death, they’d be content to simply exist, but with Death, well, their lives will have meaning — a boundary beyond which the living cannot cross.

Be proud of your mistakes. Well, proud may not be exactly the right word, but respect them, treasure them, be kind to them, learn from them. And, more than that, and more important than that, make them. Make mistakes. Make great mistakes, make wonderful mistakes, make glorious mistakes. Better to make a hundred mistakes than to stare at a blank piece of paper too scared to do anything wrong.

He had noticed that events were cowards: they didn't occur singly, but instead they would run in packs and leap out at him all at once.