The school even had a Latin motto: Pergo et Perago, which sounded like the story of two Italian cannibals but which actually meant “I try and I achieve.

Inside every fat man, there's a thin man trying to get out.

You can kiss me if you like," she said. Alex let go of her and turned away. "Thanks, Fiona," he said. "But frankly I'd prefer to kiss the horse.

I love the idea that magic and witchcraft and battles between supernatural creatures could be raging all around us but just out of our sight.

What happened?" he demanded. "I heard an explosion!" "Yeah.That was me. I set the boat alight." "What?" "I set fire to the boat." "But we're on the boat!" "I know.

Childhood, after all, is the first precious coin that poverty steals from a child.

Once you get into the world of dystopia, it's hard to avoid plagiarism, because other people have had such powerful visions.

You're never too young to die.

There's a dream world that we visit sometimes and that's how we found out who we are.

What is this place? Hogwarts? -- Alex Rider

Routine is the one thing the can get you killed. It tells the enemy where you're going and when you're going to be there.

Every failure if you let it is an opportunity to reinvent yourself and move forward.

This is not the story of my marriage. I cannot tell that story: I cannot take hold of, or lay out for anyone, the many swamps and grasses and pockets of fresh air and dank air that have gone over us.

I've decided I don't like books that end with 'The End'. The fact that there are no more pages, suggests to me that the book has ended.

It's the steady constant driving to the goal for which you're striving not the speed with which you travel that will make your victory sure.

You can do more than pray after you have prayed but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.

I feel like I get really energetic and hyper. If I do well in a show, I can't sleep afterwards. If I don't do well, I get kinda drained. I think because it's like a battle on stage.

In a snowfall that covers the winter grass a white heron uses his own whiteness to disappear.

The act of painting is about one heart telling another heart where he found salvation.

Relationships are not tailor-made and people are flawed. You have to work around that and love the other person anyway. Our flaws are what make us unique.

When I'm done playing football, I just might be the couch potato dad.