“The Giver laughed, then Jonah, too, chuckled reluctantly.”

“To love women. To pleasure them, to make them laugh. To be foolish for them. To protect them. To respect them. To listen to them. They are life-givers. To live is to love them.”

“Yeah!" shouted Jonah, twirling the much larger Hamilton around the restaurant in a victory dance.The other diners watched in amazement. This wild display was hardly the public image of the too-cool-for-school Jonah Wizard."What's the matter?" Hamilton challenged. "Haven't you ever seen a happy rapper before?”

“...this is a hard world to be ludicrous in, with so many human beings so reluctant to laugh, so incapable of thought, so eager to believe and snarl and hate.”

“The next night he asked Jonah if he could take $9.49 out of Jonah's secret stash that only Danny and his mum and Jack knew about. Jonah kept it in his sock drawer next to a photograph of Jonah and a girl with sad eyes, taken in one of those railway station photo booths.”

“Jack laughed, a quick, surprised chuckle. “God, all I wanted these past months was the chance for you to get on my nerves.”