“It looked like something the Hemlock needed, or a piece of equipment a plumber had left behind. It looked like none of your business.”

“You would run much slower if you were dragging something behind you, like a knapsack or a sheriff.”

“I found myself facing a man and a woman who looked so much alike, they could only be twins, or two people who had been married for a very long time. They both had pear-shaped bodies with short, thick legs and grumpy-looking arms, and it looked like they had both tried on heads that were too small for them, and were about to ask the head clerk for a larger size.”

“Shyness is a curious thing, because, like quicksand, it can strike people at any time, and also, like quicksand, it usually makes its victims look down.”

“Every new promise was like something heavy I had to carry, with no place to put anything down.”

“Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. Stealing is not excusable if, for instance, you are in a museum and you decide that a certain painting would look better in your house, and you simply grab the painting and take it there. But if you were very, very hungry, and you had no way of obtaining money, it would be excusable to grab the painting, take it to your house, and eat it.”

“Miracles are like pimples, because once you start looking for them you find more than you ever dreamed you'd see.”