We have teeth and we have tailsWe have tails we have eyesWe were here before you fellWe will be here when you rise.

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 mind of a man!

Brains are like toddlers. They are wonderful and should be treasured, but that doesn't mean you should trust them to take care of you in an avalanche or process serotonin effectively.

Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you.

Flattery is no more than what raises in a man's mind an idea of a preference which he has not.

If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets.

If we have learned anything in the past quarter century, it is that we cannot Federalize Virtue.

If Im feeling outraged, grief, disbelief, frustration, sympathy, that gets channeled through me and into my pictures and hopefully transmitted to the viewer.

My boyfriends are all more romantic than I am, and so are my lovers.

I always find that it's when a script is not detailed, then I have to do more work as an actor.

I intend that I am learning from my experiences so that I am only repeating the ones that bring me happiness.