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?

Fear is contagious. You can catch it.

You have to finish things - that's what you learn from, you learn by finishing things.

I know that this is the internet, and we're all anonymous and all that, but really. It doesn't hurt to try to be nice.

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.

People can get involved in wonderfully creative ways that have nothing to do with you, but spark off things you begin with.

I couldn't get you to the ocean, but there was nothing stopping me bringing the ocean to you.