“A great reader makes a great writer”

“Reader, do you think it is a terrible thing to hope when there is really no reason to hope at all? Or is it (as the soldier said about happiness) something that you might just as well do, since, in the end, it really makes no difference to anyone but you?”

“Despereaux marveled at his own bravery.He admired his own defiance.And then, reader, he fainted.”

“Rats have a sense of humor. Rats, in fact think the world is very funny. And they are right, dear reader. They are right.”

“Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love - a powerful, wonderful thing.And a ridiculous thing, too.”

“Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform.”

“Besides, who ever asked you what you wanted in this world, girl?The answer to that question, reader, as you well know, was absolutely no one.”