“But most important, she had broken through that invisible wall of terror that surrounded her, and lived to tell the tale.”

“she's lazy, so i'm not sure when she had time to build that wall she has surrounding her.”

“Her heart became a bird, trapped inside the glass box of her chest, flapping violently into wall after invisible wall, crumpling into a heap of broken hollow-bones on the transparent floor.”

“... I'll tell her about Tia. I'll tell her how beautiful she was and how brave. And I'll tell her the most important thing of all: that her mother loved her better than her life.”

“David could tell, by looking at her face as she read, whether or not the story contained in the book was living inside her, and she in it, and he would recall again all that she had told him about stories and tales and the power that they wield over us, and that we in turn wield over them.”

“I can't leave her there all alone, surrounded by stone walls... She's too precious to give up.”