“But if I could do anything?Maybe you would want to be able to save the world, the Voice said. Did you ever think of that?No. I frowned. Leave that to the grown-ups.But grown-ups are the ones destroying the world, the Voice said. Think about it.”

“I used to think that fifteen would be nearly grown up," said her sister Naomi, "until you started being it”

“What did it matter to me? Did I think that by making you rational about one thing, I could make you rational about everything? Maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to save you from your fears”

“If I were to be made a knight," said the Wart, staring dreamily into the fire, "I should insist on doing my vigil by myself, as Hob does with his hawks, and I should pray to God to let me encounter all the evil in the world in my own person, so that if I conquered there would be none left, and, if I were defeated, I would be the one to suffer for it.""That would be extremely presumptuous of you," said Merlyn, "and you would be conquered, and you would suffer for it.""I shouldn't mind.""Wouldn't you? Wait till it happens and see.""Why do people not think, when they are grown up, as I do when I am young?""Oh dear," said Merlyn. '"You are making me feel confused. Suppose you wait till you are grown up and know the reason?""I don't think that is an answer at all," replied the Wart, justly.Merlyn wrung his hands."Well, anyway," he said, "suppose they did not let you stand against all the evil in the world?""I could ask," said the Wart."You could ask," repeated Merlyn.He thrust the end of his beard into his mouth, stared tragically into the fire, and began to munch it fiercely.”

“I want to tell you,' the voice on the phone said. 'My head is filled with things to say.'...'I don't mind,' Hal said softly. 'I could wait forever.''That's what you think,' the voice said. The connection was cut.”

“...thinking that the world was like an orange, that I could split it open with my thumbnail and find a whole different world, the grown-up world, the secrets beneath the skin.”