"

Sometimes I wonder if the human race isn't collectively as mad as a sack of door knobs.

"

Mr. McGregor's a nasty piece of work, isn't he? Quite the Darth Vader of children's literature.

"

Honor is kind of what you get when you weaponize manners

"

Death, I had discovered long ago, was available in varying flavors, and none of them particularly palatable.

"

Dead. Never been that before. Not even once.

"

Whereas story is processed in the mind in a straightforward manner, poetry bypasses rational thought and goes straight to the limbic system and lights...more

"

Truly competent Literary Detectives are as rare as truthful men, Mr. Tweed -- you can see her potential as clearly as I can. Frightened of someone ste...more

"

I would so hate to be a first-person character! Always on your guard, always having people read your thoughts!

"

Her majesty is one verb short of a sentence.

"

She wasn't the only one to be physically morphed by reader expectation. Miss Havisham was now elderly whether she liked it or not, and Sherlock Holmes...more

"

the Real-World was a sprawling mess of a book in need of a good editor.

"

I didn't set out to discover a truth. I was actually sent to the Outer Fringes to conduct a chair census and learn some humility. But the truth inevit...more

"

Believe me, you're going to have to do much worse than this--in the pursuit of freedom, the innocents will suffer--and at your hands.

"

You want me to spy on a National Colour operative?''Wow,' she said, 'you got it. I thought I was going to have to explain that one for a lot longer.

"

I'm beginning to think you're the sort of person who does a great deal with very little."He meant a liar.