She looked at the girl in the mirror and the girl in the mirror looked back at her. I will be brave, thought Coraline. No, I am brave.

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

The world seemed to shimmer a little at the edges.

I will be brave, thought Coraline. No, I am brave.

Coraline shivered. She preferred her other mother to have a location: if she were nowhere, then she could be anywhere. And, after all, it is always easier to be afraid of something you cannot see.

I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted just like that, and it didn't mean anything? What then?

Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.

You know I love you, ' said the other mother flatly.'You have a very funny way of showing it, ' said Coraline.

Mirrors, ' she said, 'are never to be trusted.

We...we could be friends.'We COULD be rare specimens of an exotic breed of dancing African elephants, but we're not. At least, I'M not.

Be wise. Be brave. Be tricky.

How do poems grow? They begin deep down in the pit of the soul as a seedling of a thought …

I'd like to vote for the candidate similar to the one the Right absurdly claims Obama is.

Elite is not a bad word, it's an aspirational one.

I listen to every type of metal under the sun. I'm not very discerning.

A chimpanzee who is really gearing up for a fight doesn't waste time with gestures but just goes ahead and attacks.

It is good breeding alone that can prepossess people in your favor at first sight, more time being necessary to discover greater talents.

Music critics get their records for free so their opinions usually don't matter.

There are few tribes more loathsome than the American Right, and their vicious use of the shortcomings in the NHS to attack Barack Obama's attempts at health reform are a useful reminder.

I could see no reason for being sad. It´s just that it makes me unhappy not to feel happy.