“...food was at least three million per cent more delicious when you ate it immediately after thinking you were going to die.”

“I've had quite enough danger for a while I think. I might have some more when I'm thirteen, but definitely not before then...”

“...we've already had one horrible thing happen today, which means that if you think about it the odds of anything else horrible happening again in the next few hours should now be quite low.”

“We're going to have ourselves one hell of a Ruckus," said Smokey with a grin that went quite beyond the boundaries of mischief and right into the realm of delinquency.”

“I haven't been so sure of anything since the time Mum asked me if I absolutely, definitely, certainly thought it was a good idea to practise doing cartwheels inside the house.”

“I had an aunt named 'abnormal Shauna' once. But she passed away in an unfortunate cliff-top interpretative dance and fireworks accident.”

“Saw a show on Discovery Channel that talked about how energy and matter can't be destroyed. It can only change and that got me thinking that maybe there is something more than just this life. Dying might just be a transformation of energy.”