""She's like a prisoner inside stone walls, and every day the walls get a little thicker, the doorways a little narrower."
"And?" Eddis prompted.
"Well," said Eugenides, "it's a challenge." "
— Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen of Attolia)

"Relius looked away. "He said that you...cried," he said softly.
"But not that he cried as well," said the queen, amused at the memory. "We were very lachrymose. ...Would you like to hear more romance of the evening? He told me the Guard should be reduced by half, and I threw an ink jar at his head."
"Is that when he cried?"
"He ducked," said Attolia dryly...
"I had not pictured you for a fishwife."
"Lo, the transforming power of love.""
— Megan Whalen Turner (The King of Attolia)

"You'll have to pardon me," the magus said. "But with your country at war I can't see how any of it really matters.
Standing up, Eugenides pulled the papers from the magus's hands. "It matters, because I can't do anything, anymore, for this country, and it matters," he yelled as he threw the papers back to his desk, "because I only have one hand and it isn't even the right one!" Turning, he picked an inkpot off the desk and threw it to shatter on the door of his wardrobe, spraying black ink across the pale wood and onto the wall. Black drops like rain stained the sheets of his bed.

...Eddis sighed. "Will you sit down and stop shouting?" she asked.
"I'll stop shouting. I won't sit down. I might need to throw more inkpots."
— Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen of Attolia)

"'This is the stupidest plan I have ever in my career participated in,' Xenophon said.
'I love stupid plans,' said Eugenides."
— Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen of Attolia)

"Why did you come if not to murder my king?"
"I came to steal his magus."
"You can't," said the magus in question.
"I can steal anything," Eugenides corrected him, "even with one hand."
— Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen of Attolia)

"Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I'm afraid even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up they were so used to quarreling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently."
— C.S. Lewis (The Horse and His Boy)

"'Certainly, Lu. Whatever you like,' said Peter unexpectedly. This was encouraging, but as Peter instantly rolled round and went to sleep again it wasn't much use.
"
— C.S. Lewis (Prince Caspian)

"That is ridiculous," she said.
The king agreed. "Like falling in love with a landslide. Only you could fail to notice."
— Megan Whalen Turner (The King of Attolia)

"If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large."
— William Wilberforce

"Bryon tilted his head to a very odd angle, half-closed his eyes and composed his features to suggest that he was about to expire from chronic indigestion."
— Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell)

"“Farewell” is not the word that you would like to hear from your mother as you are being led to the dungeon by 2 oversize mice in black hoods.
Words that you would like to hear are “Take me instead, I will go to the dungeon in my sons place.” There is a great deal of comfort in those words."
— Kate DiCamillo (Despereaux/the Tale Of Despereaux)

"Love, as we have already discussed, is a powerful, wonderful, ridiculous thing, capable of moving mountains. And spools of thread."
— Kate DiCamillo (Despereaux/the Tale Of Despereaux)

"At the thought of being eaten by rats, Despereaux forgot about being brave. He forgot about not being a disappointment. He felt himself heading into another faint. But his mother, who had an excellent sense of dramatic timing, beat him to it; she executed a beautiful, flawless swoon, landing right at Despereaux's feet."
— Kate DiCamillo (Despereaux/the Tale Of Despereaux)

"He was weeping. Although 'weeping' really is to small a word for the activity the kind had undertaken. Tears were cascading from his eyes. A small puddle had formed at his feet. I am not exaggerating. The king, it seemed, was intent on crying himself a river."
— Kate DiCamillo

"I always have a quotation for everything--it saves original thinking."
— Dorothy L. Sayers

"I'm sorry I wrote you such a long letter; I didn't have time to write a short one."
— Blaise Pascal

"Howl: "I've got a hangover"
Sophie: "No, you hit you head on the floor"
Howl: "I can't stay. I've got to rescue that fool Sophie.""
— Diana Wynne Jones (Howl's Moving Castle)

"Typical! I break my neck trying to get here, and I find you peacefully tidying up!"
— Diana Wynne Jones (Howl's Moving Castle)

"I think we ought to live happily ever after," and she thought he meant it. Sophie knew that living happily ever after with Howl would be a good deal more hair-raising than any storybook made it sound, though she was determined to try. "It should be hair-raising," added Howl.
"And you'll exploit me," Sophie said.
"And then you'll cut up all my suits to teach me."
— Diana Wynne Jones

"Really, these wizards! You'd think no one had ever had a cold before! Well, what is it?" she asked, hobbling through the bedroom door onto the filthy carpet.

"I'm dying of boredom," Howl said pathetically. "Or maybe just dying."
— Diana Wynne Jones (Howl's Moving Castle)

"I am a believer in free will. If my dog chooses to hate the whole human race except myself, it must be free to do so."
— Diana Wynne Jones (Castle in the Air)

"All I wanted to do was lie in the dry grass with my feet in a ditch forever. I could be a convenient sort of milemarker, I thought. Get to the thief and you know your halfway to Methana."
— Megan Whalen Turner (The Thief)

"'I'll be your minister--'
"Of the exchequer? You'd rob me blind."
"I would never steal from you," he'd said hotly.
"Oh? Where is my tourmaline necklace? Where are my missing earrings?"
"That necklace was hideous. It was the only way to keep you from wearing it."
"My earrings?"
"What earrings?""
— Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen of Attolia)

""How do you know that, Philo, dear?"

But Philologos had had enough of being condescended to. "Because, Lamion, I am not as dumb as you think I am, even if you are."

By the time Lamion had parsed this to make sure that there was in fact an insult at the end of it, Hilarion had laid a restraining hand on his arm."
— Megan Whalen Turner (The King of Attolia)

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one."
— C.S. Lewis

"A Centaur has a man-stomach and a horse-stomach. And of course both want breakfast. So first of all he has porridge and pavenders and kidneys and bacon and omlette and cold ham and toast and marmalade and coffee and beer. And after that he tends to the horse part of himself by grazing for an hour or so and finishing up with a hot mash, some oats, and a bag of sugar. That's why it's such a serious thing to ask a Centaur to stay for the weeekend. A very serious thing indeed."
— C.S. Lewis (The Silver Chair)

"'Now sir, said the bulldog in his business-like way. 'Are you a animal, vegetable, or mineral?'
- The Magician's Nephew"
— C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia)

"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."
— C.S. Lewis (The World's Last Night: And Other Essays)

"The movie was Son of Frankenstein, and there was a Gene Autry film along with it. I liked the Frankenstein movie. I liked all Frankenstein movies. But as for Gene Autry, I never liked him very much. He had a bad habit of pulling out his guitar and singing, right in the middle of the movie."
— Don Lemna (When The Sergeant Came Marching Home)

"Your Majesty, please get down. My friend Aris is really a very good man, and if you fall off that wall he's going to hang for it, and so will his squad, most of whom are also nice men, and though I can't say I really care if your attendants hang, there are probably many people that do care, and would you please, please get down?"

The king looked at him, eyes narrowed. "I don't think I've ever heard you say that many words in a row. You sounded almost articulate."
— Megan Whalen Turner (The King of Attolia)

"He [Pat] pushed a little wheat onto the edge of the shovel, then swung the thing around with such sudden force that the wheat might have actually made it onto the truck, if only he hadn't let go of the shovel. But he did let go of it, and it went sailing through the air like a silver spaceship until my forehead stopped it.

"You've killed me!" I cried. I slipped down onto the pile of wheat, blinking wildly and clutching at my wounded forehead.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he shouted.

I felt quite numb all over, as if I weren't really there.

"I see three angels with golden trumpets," I informed him.

At this point he began to blubber.

"Don't die!" he cried.

"It's too late. I responded. "You've killed me, and now I'm going to die.

"They'll probably hang you," I added as an afterthought."
— Don Lemna (When The Sergeant Came Marching Home)

""I don't think she [Mother] likes doing the laundry," I said. It was actually the first time in my life that I'd really thought about it - about what she did once a week, every week, all our lives. I suddenly felt very sorry for her. At the same time, I wondered what it would be like to never again have clean clothes."
— Don Lemna

"'And I don't know if Batty's gotten over it yet,' said Skye.

Mr. Penderwick looked out the window to where Batty was playing vampires with Hound. Hound was on his back, trying to wiggle out of the black towel Batty had tied around his neck. Batty was leaping over Hound's water bowl, shrieking, 'Blood, blood!'

'She looks all right,' he said. "
— Jeanne Birdsall (The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy)

""Poison!" Grover yelped. "Don't let those things touch you or..."

"Or we'll die?" I guessed.

"Well...after you shrivel slowly to dust, yes."

"Let's avoid the swords," I decided."
— Rick Riordan (The Battle of the Labyrinth)

"Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another."
— Lemony Snicket

"A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been flooded."
— Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)

"There they go, my friend, right into the sunset. And even though it happens to be overcast at the moment, let's pretend it isn't, because it's just that much nicer."
— Adrienne Kress (Alex and the Ironic Gentleman)

" You would be forgiven for thinking Alex Morningside was a boy. In fact, she would be the first to laugh at this, because, for one thing, she wasn't, and for another, she had an Excellent Sense of Humour. It wasn't that she wanted to be a boy or anything, it was simply that she didn't see much difference in being treated as a girl or boy. Because, after all, everyone is just people.
One of the reasons people thought she was a boy was her haircut. Her haircut looked like someone had put a bowl on her head and cut around it. Which is exactly what her uncle had done. Also, they thought she was a boy because her name was Alex. Of course, Alex was short for Alexandra, but neither Alex nor her uncle liked that very much, so they shortened the name. They could have shortened it the other was I suppose - Andra - but she and her uncle preferred Alex."
— Adrienne Kress (Alex and the Ironic Gentleman)

"Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to...

- Frodo to Sam"
— J.R.R. Tolkien

"Do you like vegetables?" Sophie asked, hoping to steer the conversation towards a slightly less dangerous kind of food.
"You is trying to change the subject," the Giant said sternly. "We is having an interesting babblement about the taste of the human bean. The human bean is not a vegetable."
— Roald Dahl (The BFG)

"The cafe windows wrapped all the way around the observation floor, which gave us a beautiful panoramic view of the skeleton army that had come to kill us."
— Rick Riordan (The Titan's Curse)

"It seemed weird calling a teenager 'sir' but I'd learned to be careful with immortals. They tended to get offended easily. Then, they blew stuff up."
— Rick Riordan

"Ever had a flying burrito hit you? Well, it's a deadly projectile, right up there with cannonballs and grenades."
— Rick Riordan (The Titan's Curse)

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
— C.S. Lewis

"Taking one’s chances is like taking a bath, because sometimes you end up feeling comfortable and warm, and sometimes there is something terrible lurking around that you cannot see until it is too late and you can do nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck."
— Lemony Snicket

"If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[ pasdlgkhasdfasdf."
— Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)

"Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly."
— Cornelia Funke (Inkheart)

"It may be laid down as a general rule that if a man begins to sing, no one will take any notice of his song except his fellow human beings. This is true even if his song is surpassingly beautiful. Other men may be in raptures at his skill, but the rest of creation is, by and large, unmoved. Perhaps a cat or a dog may look at him; his horse, if it is an exceptionally intelligent beast, may pause in cropping the grass, but that is the extent of it. But when the fairy sang, the whole world listened to him. Stephen felt clouds pause in their passing; he felt sleeping hills shift and murmur; he felt cold mists dance. He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands. In the fairy's song the earth recognized the names by which it called itself."
— Susanna Clarke

"'Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange. Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. “I suppose a magician might,” he admitted, “but a gentleman never would.'"
— Susanna Clarke (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell)

"A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest."
— C.S. Lewis