But it is impossible to replace a person one has loved to distraction.

If you are good life is good.

And don’t worry about the bits you can’t understand. Sit back and allow the words to wash around you, like music.

Titchy little snapperwhippers like you should not be higgling around with an old sage and onions who is hundreds of years more than you.

It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you.

I was glad my father was an eye-smiler. It meant he never gave me a fake smile, because it's impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren't feeling twinkly yourself. A mouth-smile is different. You can fake a mouth-smile any time you want, simply by moving your lips. I've also learned that a real mouth-smile always has an eye-smile to go with it, so watch out, I say, when someone smiles at you with his mouth but the eyes stay the same. It's sure to be bogus.

So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.