“Today I have grown taller from walking with the trees.”

“In a designed economy there would be no trees, or certainly no very tall trees: no forests, no canopy. Trees are a waste. Trees are extravagant. Tree trunks are standing monuments to futile competition - futile if we think in terms of a planed economy. But the natural economy is not planned. Individual plants compete with other plants, of the same and other species, and the result is that they grow taller and taller, far taller than any planner would recommend.”

“A tree looks a lot taller in the desert than it does in the forest.”

“So this is how they lived. For some time Theo, like a tree living in the shadow of taller trees, found a way to live off reflected light.”

“I hate that name,” Mr. Grey said, walking toward the dragon’s head statue. It was taller than he was, formed eerily from the stalactites and stalagmites of the cavern wall. “I wanted to be Mr. Purple. I like purple.”

“Find the light. Reach for it. Live for it. Pull yourself up by it. Gratitude always makes for straighter, taller trees.”