“This is Mat's secret weapon, his passport, his get-out-of-jail-free card: Mat makes things that are beautiful.”

“Mat had tried to make her say she saw a hat floating around Mat's head. That would persuade Tuon to stop trying to get rid of his, would it not?”

“She had got rid of his black bedsheets, the beer mats, secretly culled his underpants and there were fewer of his famous 'Summer Roasts', but even so, she was reaching the limits of how much it's possible to change a man.”

“Tangled grasses lie matted with death,but generals keep at it. And for what?Isn't it clear that weapons are the tools of misery?The great sages never waited until the needfor such things arose.”

“Homeschool doesn’t give you a get out of teenage jail free card. It justgives you fewer opportunities to become the butt of someone’s lame Facebook joke.”

“The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat’s mat is a story.”