She smiled at Coraline, as if it had been a very long time since she had smiled and she had almost, but not quite, forgotten how.

You know what killed off the dinosaurs, Whateley? We did. In one barbecue.

The only ones who ever come here from your lands are the minstrels, and the lovers, and the mad. And you don't look like much of a minstrel, and you're— pardon me for saying so lad, but it's true— ordinary as cheese crumbs. So it's love if you ask me.

Biting's excellent. It's like kissing - only there is a winner.

Really, he thought, if you couldn't trust a poet to offer sensible advice, who could you trust?

It's astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if one works at it. And astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself out of, if one assumes that everything will, somehow or other, work out for the best.

Loyalty was a great thing, but no lieutenants should be forced to choose between their leader and a circus with elephants.