You know I love you,' said the other mother flatly. 'You have a very funny way of showing it,' said Coraline.

Be wise, because the world needs more wisdom. And if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would.

Of course you don't believe in fairies. You're fifteen. You think I believed in fairies at fifteen? Took me until I was at least a hundred and forty. Hundred and fifty, maybe. Anyway, he wasn't a fairy. He was a librarian. All right?

The problems with success, frankly, are infinitely preferable to the problems of failure.

Young man," he said, "understand this: there are two Londons. There's London Above―that's where you lived―and then there's London Below―the Underside―inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world. Now you're one of them. Good night.

Everything here is so weak, little girl. Everything breaks so easily. They want such simple things.

There's not much high and low culture any more: there's just mingling streams of art and what matters is whether it's good art or bad art.