When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man I put away childish things because. wow, then I could afford much *better* childish things!

What is magic? There is the wizard's explanation... wizards talk about candles, circles, planets, stars, bananas, chants, runes and the importance of having at least four good meals every day.

Matter exploded into being, apparently as chaos, but in fact as a chord. The ultimate power chord.

I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

Granddad was superstitious about books. He thought that if you had enough of them around, education leaked out, like radioactivity.

You couldn't say 'I had orders.' You couldn't say 'It's not fair.' No one was listening. There were no Words. You owned yourself. [...] Not 'Thou Shalt Not'. Say 'I Will Not'.

It was like being in a Jane Austen novel, but one with far less clothing.