“I've heard it said that children born to stressful times never shake the air of woe . . . .”

“The happiest folk are those that are busy, for their minds are starved of time to seek out woe.”

“I want to be independent. To meet interesting people. ... I just mean new people with clever things to say. Things I've never heard before. I want to be free. Open to whatever adventure comes along and sweeps me off my feet.”

“Doors lead to things and I've never met one I haven't wanted to open.”

“His words had tossed the book that was her life into the air and the pages had been blown into disarray, could never be put back together to tell the same story.”

“Cassandra always hid when she read, though she never quite knew why. It was as if she couldn't shake the guilty suspicion that she was being lazy, that surrendering herself so completely to something so enjoyable must surely be wrong. But surrender she did. Let herself drop through the rabbit hole and into a tale of magic and mystery ...”

“She doesn't know I cry for the changing times. That just as I reread favourite books, some small part of me hoping for a different ending, I find myself hoping against hope that the war will never come. That this time, somehow, it will leave us be.”