The cat wrinkled its nose and managed to look unimpressed. "Calling cats, " it confided, "tends to be a rather overrated activity. Might as well call a whirlwind.

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.

The Attolians liked to point out with a snicker that there was no sign anywhere of the king's hand at work.

As much as Henry Kissinger wanted to attribute historical movement to impersonal forces, he too conceded to "the difference personalities make".

Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know, we become insensitive to many things of great importance.

A fly Sir may sting a stately horse and make him wince but one is but an insect and the other a horse still.

I fear those big words which make us so unhappy.

Spiders so large they appear to be wearing the pelts of small mammals.

God's greatest thirst and his greatest sin is his ultimate vanity.

I really wanted the MTV Award the most, It was a golden popcorn container and it looks really neat.

I have but one life to give to adventure. " Alexander Eliot -" Life is a fatal adventure. It can only have one end. So why not make it as far-ranging and free as possible.

The Universe has a pulse and rhythm of its own, and it wants to carry you with it-so if you dance with Spirit, just remember to let it lead.