Emma Donoghue

“Daffy had stopped talking, without her noticing. It was if he'd run out of words. He did a peculiar thing, then; he reached out and touched Mary's cheekbone; lightly, as if he was brushing away a speck of coal dust. She thought of Doll, that first morning, wiping mud out of the lost child's eyes. Her throat hurt, all at once, as if she were swallowing a stone. She wished the two of them could stay forever frozen in this moment, hidden in the grass, as the setting sun slid across the fields of Monmouth. Before any asking, any refusal. While this strange, tame young man was still looking at her as is she were worth any price.”

“Daffy bent down suddenly, and picked a small startled white flower. "Anemone," he said, handing it over; he made her repeat the word until she had it right. "Find me a silk to match that.”

“And the flames are every colour of the rainbow.""They can't be," observed Daffy."Well, they are," she said cheekily. "Have you been there, that you know so much about it?""No," said Daffy, very calm, "but I'd wager I know more than you about the chemical processes of combustion."Mary rolled her eyes. Did he hope to dazzle her with syllables?”

“The worn soles of Daffy's boots skidded on the icy stones. He'd been saving up for a new pair for Christmas, but then he'd come across an encyclopaedia in ten volumes, going cheap. Boots might last ten years, at best, but knowledge was eternal.”

“In the yard of the inn, Daffy Cadwaladyr introduced himself. "Short for Davyd," he said pleasantly.The Londoner looked as if she'd never heard a sillier name in her life.”

“Vitamins are medicine for not getting sick and going back to Heaven yet.”

“But I go back down near the water with Steppa to look for treasure. We find a white shell like a snail, but when I curl my finger inside, he's gone out. "Keep it," say Steppa. "But what about when he comes home?”

“Driving home I see the playground but it's all wrong, the swings are on the opposite side. "Oh, Jack, that's a different one," says Grandma. There's playgrounds in every town." Lots of the world seems to be a repeat.”

“When I was a little kid I thought like a little kid, but now I'm five I know everything”

“The crow flew closer, as if to hear its praises.”

“For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people around him.”

“Alice says she can't explain herself because she's not herself, she knows who she was this morning but she changed several times since then.”

“When I tell her what I’m thinking and she tells me what she’s thinking, our each ideas jumping into the other’s head, like coulouring blue crayon on top of yellow that makes green.”

“People are locked up in all sorts of ways.”

“It’s called mind over matter. If we don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

“The sound of the pages turning was the sound of magic. The dry liquid feel of paper under fingertips was what magic felt like.”

“Books are the air I breathe, so I don't notice the seasons.”

“The days of my vanity are over and heaven knows they weren't happy enough to regret”

“I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened.”

“Ambition was an itch in Mary's show, a maggot in her guts.”

“I've been in the world three weeks and a half, I still never know what's going to hurt.”

“She leaped into space, high, higher than she'd ever been in her life. She came down with a clean snap, and the crowd scattered like birds from the swing of her feet.”

“What started Baby Jesus growing in Mary's tummy was an angel zoomed down, like a ghost but a really cool one with feathers. Mary was all surprised, she said, "How can this be?" and then, "OK let it be." When Baby Jesus popped out of her vagina on Christmas she put him in a manger but not for the cows to chew, only to warm him up with their blowing because he was magic.”

“You know who you belong to, Jack?”“Yeah.”“Yourself.”He’s wrong, actually, I belong to Ma.”

“If I was made of cake I'd eat myself before somebody else could.”

“Me and Ma have a deal, we're going to try everything one time so we know what we like.”

“I watch his hands, they're lumpy but clever. "Is there a word for adults when they aren't parents?"Steppa laughs. "Folks with other things to do?”

“We're standing on the deck that's all wooden like the deck of a ship. There's fuzz on it, little bundles. Grandma says it's some kind of pollen from a tree."Which one?" I'm staring up at all the differents."Can't help you there, I'm afraid."In Room we knowed what everything was called but in the world there's so much, persons don't even know the names.”

“It's all real in Outside, everything there is, because I saw an airplane in the blue between the clouds. Ma and me can't go there because we don't know the secret code, but it's real all the same.Before I didn't know to be mad that we can't open Door, my head was too small to have Outside in it.”

“I chop the broccoli into pieces with ZigZag Knife, sometimes I swallow some when Ma's not looking and she says, "Oh, no, where's that big bit gone?" but she's not really mad because raw things make us extra alive.”

“Stories are a different kind of true.”

“Maybe I’m a human, but I’m a me-and-Ma as well.”

“The world is always changing brightness and hotness and soundness, I never know how it's going to be the next minute.”

“Ma's still nodding. "You're the one who matters, though. Just you."I shake my head till it's wobbling because there's no just me.”

“Goodbye, Room." I wave up at Skylight. "Say goodbye," I tell Ma. "Goodbye, Room."Ma says it but on mute.I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door.”

“I think about Old Nick carrying me into the truck, I'm dizzy like I'm going to fall down."Scared is what you're feeling," says Ma, "but brave is what you're doing.""Huh?""Scaredybrave.""Scave."Word sandwiches always make her laugh but I wasn't being funny.”

“I tell you frankly, Mrs. Damer, the more I see of different nations, the less sure I feel about the pre-eminence of my own.”

“Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.”

“In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time...I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well...I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter all over the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.”

“...sentences swallowed and sung back and swallowed all over again. She was made entirely out of words.”