I tend to find characters who lack vulnerability dull.

Every great thinker keeps a journal, you know.

What is life without laughter?

Was it worse for him, Reynie wondered, to have felt loved and then rejected? Or was it worse to have always felt alone?

It just supports my personal opinion that he's a wacko

I was always interested in the possibility maybe of finding my way into a big adventure.

Mr. Harinton was real. There were adults in the world who would actually make sacrifices for others - not just for their own families but for anyone who needed help. Nicholas had always had the impression that families looked after one another, and he had come to understand that, on rare ocassions, children would do the same... But this was different. What Mr. Harinton was doing certainly helped Nicolas - but it also simply felt right to Nicholas. It made him want to be exactly like Mr. Harinton himself.