“They've read too many of those romances with alpha males striding their way through them. They think that beneath all that granite they're going to find a tender, injured soul crying out for their healing touch. Whereas I see someone whose mother didn't tell him to "make nice" enough when he was little. If he ever was little.”

“Jack shook his head. 'Books. What is it with women and books? My sisters were the same. They were always buying books for boys they fancied.'Ellie bent down and picked up the stone and put it on the table. 'It's like sending a love letter without having to write it yourself,' she said softly.”

“Sometimes you have to realise that somebody is not coming back and there will be no happy ending. You don't get the prince, you get the frog. And sometimes after a while the frog doesn't seem so bad and you realise that the prince was not in fact that much of a prince.”

“Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.”

“Now you look here. All your father ever dreamed of for you was to do something you loved in life. He didn't care about fancy qualifications or fancy clothes or cars, just that you were both happy and fulfilled. He was so excited about your dreams for a career.”

“Dis'll only hurt a little. -Drofgum”

“They say 90% of the promotion of a book comes through word of mouth. But you've somehow got to get your book into the hands of those mouths first!”