The Graveyard Book

by Neil Gaiman

He could smell the child: a milky smell, like chocolate chip cookies, and the sour tang of a wet, disposable, nighttime diaper.

He growled in the back of his throat, like a beast of prey, angry and frustrated.

The graveyard kept its secrets.

Ghouls do not build. They are parasites and scavengers, eaters of carrion.

I am a Hound of God. I travel my own road, into Hell and out of it.”

You’ll catch your death.”

It’s like the people who believe they’ll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn’t work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.

For the sake of all that is holy, empty your mind. Now. You are an empty alleyway. You are a vacant doorway. You are nothing. Eyes will not see you. Minds will not hold you. Where you are is nothing and nobody.”

“I’ve been looking for you since I woke. You have the smell of trouble all around you.

Then she sang, to the tune of the dance, “Step and turn, and walk and stay, Now we dance the Macabray.”

She Sleeps, Aye, Yet She Sleeps with Angels)

You’re alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you’re dead, it’s gone. Over. You’ve made what you’ve made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.”

Fear is contagious. You can catch it. Sometimes all it takes is for someone to say that they’re scared for the fear to become real.

“If he didn’t care about you, you couldn’t upset him,”

Have you ever been haunted, Maureen Quilling? Ever looked in the mirror wondering if the eyes looking back at you were yours? Ever sat in an empty room, and realized you were not alone? It’s not pleasant.”

Lost to All But Memory,”

“Of all the organs,” said Nehemiah Trot, “the tongue is the most remarkable. For we use it both to taste our sweet wine and bitter poison, thus also do we utter words both sweet and sour with the same tongue.

If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.”

“Do not take revenge in the heat of the moment. Instead, wait until the hour is propitious.

“People want to forget the impossible. It makes their world safer.”

You’re always you, and that don’t change, and you’re always changing, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Face your life Its pain, its pleasure, Leave no path untaken”