Why should I be annoyed? Someone only filled the castle with rotten aspic, and deafened everyone in Porthaven, and scared Calcifer to a cinder, and broke a few hundred hearts. Why should that annoy me?

Controller Borasus sighed with relief. Libraries were not places of danger. It had to be a hoax.

He held out his hand to Sophie, just like Mrs. Pentstemmon, but a little less royally. Sophie levered herself up, wondering if she was meant to kiss this hand or not. But since she felt...

The demon at legth fell to singing a gentle, flickering little song. It was not in any language Sophie knew – or she thought not, until she distinctly heard the word “saucepan” in it several...

What a strange family you are! Is your name Lettie too?

City of Wizards is normally quite a GOOD thing, since only Good WIZARDS seem able to live together. . . .There have been cities of EVIL Wizards in the past. You will occasionally come across...

After that, all the while Millie was eating the pudding… we both tore Christopher’s character to shreds. It was wonderful fun…. He drove everyone mad in Chrestomanci Castle by insisting on silk shirts and exactly...

Nobody can buy a hat without gossiping.

I think we ought to live happily ever after.

Before long, everyone was giving him answers, and feeling a little superior, because it was really remarkable the number of things Chrestomanci seemed not to know. He had heard of Hitler, though he asked Brian...

Being a hero means ignoring how silly you feel.

Wizard Howl,” said Wizard Suliman. “I must apologize for trying to bite you so often. In the normal way, I wouldn’t dream of setting teeth in a fellow countryman.

Take it from me, Fate doesn’t care most of the time.

But I discovered that people like me — they do, you know, if you like them — and then it was all right.

If you take myth and folklore, and these things that speak in symbols, they can be interpreted in so many ways that although the actual image is clear enough, the interpretation is infinitely blurred, a...

To love someone enough to let them go, you had to let them go forever or you did not love them that much.

Charles realized that if he were going to apologize to Chrestomanci, he had better do it at once. He turned around to say it. But the folds had already rippled flat and nothing was the...

Happiness isn’t a thing. You can’t go out and get it like a cup of tea. It’s the way you feel about things.

Are you off to the iceberg today?” Sophie retorted.

Some people are thoroughly self-centred. This thing goes with me. I need it for moral support.

Horses are of a breed unique to Fantasyland. They are capable of galloping full-tilt all day without a rest. Sometimes they do not require food or water. They never cast shoes, go lame or put...

f you take myth and folklore, and these things that speak in symbols, they can be interpreted in so many ways that although the actual image is clear enough, the interpretation is infinitely blurred, a...

You must admit I have a right to live in a pigsty if I want.

Mr. Crossley suddenly wondered why he was why he was worrying about the note. It was only a joke, after all. He cleared his throat. Everyone looked up hopefully. ‘Somebody,’ said Mr. Crossley, ‘seems to...

This book will prove the following ten facts:1. A Goon is a being who melts into the foreground and sticks there.2. Pigs have wings, making them hard to catch.3. All power corrupts, but we need...

Polaris often remarks to Sol that Sirius loses his temper much less often these days. But the one sure way to send him into a flaming rage is to suggest that he finds a new...

I’d rather die!

Go to bed, you fool,” Calcifer said sleepily. “You’re drunk.””Who, me?” said Howl. “I assure you, my friends, I am cone sold stober.” He got up and stalked upstairs, feeling for the wall as if...

Really, these wizards! You’d think no one had ever had a cold before! Well, what is it?” she asked, hobbling through the bedroom door onto the filthy carpet.”I’m dying of boredom,” Howl said pathetically. “Or...

A book for children, like the myths and folktales that tend to slide into it, is really a blueprint for dealing with life. For that reason, it might have a happy ending, because nobody ever...

Learn to drive?””Never,” said Quentin. “My mission in life is to be a passenger.

I am a total zombie just after I wake up. It takes me half an hour even to get my eyes open. Ask anyone who knows me. I can’t see; I can’t talk properly; I...

Slender Youth. A tour companion who may be either a lost prince or a girl/princess in disguise. In the latter case it is tactful to pretend you think she is a boy. She/he will be...

What makes you a real girl or boy is that no one laughs at you. If you are imitation or unreal, the rules give you a right to exist provided you do what the real...

I am a believer in free will. If my dog chooses to hate the whole human race except myself, it must be free to do so.

Tantrums are seldom about the thing they appear to be about.

Nobody gets praised for the right reasons.

As she turned left to the gateway, it occurred to her that swimming was only one of a very large number of things she had no idea what to do. Peter had been right to...

Naturally I don’t,” Sophie answered.

I’m going to bed, where I may die.

I feel ill,” [Howl] announced. “I’m going to bed, where I may die.

I’ll show you how,” Peter said. “Stop hiding behind your ignorance.

The truth between two people always cuts two ways.

When you grow up to be an author and write books, you’ll think you’re making the books up, but they’ll all really be true, somewhere.

Small Man can be a very funny or a very tiresome Tour Companion, depending on how this kind of thing grabs you. He gambles, he drinks too much and he always runs away. Since the...

After that, he tried to go upstairs through the broom cupboard, and then the yard. This seemed to puzzle him a little. But finally he discovered the stairs, all except the bottom on, and fell...

I can’t abide people who go soft over animals and then cheat every human they come across!

And, suddenly, as if her head cleared, she was quite sure that wonderful things did indeed exist. Even if they’re only in my own mind, she thought, they’re there and worth fighting for.

After this, Boy became very curious about the mansion where the clothes and the food came from. He made me describe everything. Then he asked Good Thing ‘Are there books in this mansion, too?”And pictures...

Oh! Polly thought. Why aren’t all girls locked up by law the year they turn fifteen? They do such stupid things!