“How good it would be to make my own decisions; if only I knew how to.”

“He sighed. 'Your life is your own,Miss Kingston. We have only one. Don't allow anyone else to dictate to you what you should do with yours.'She blinked and frowned as if she didn't understand what he meant.'It's yours,' he advised softly. 'Don't waste it on petty conventions or conformity. Swim against the tide if you want to.”

“Sometimes, the only things that make you feel good are the same ones that worked when you were five. Yes, I slammed the door”

“It's a piece of cake, being a lawyer or a doctor or a computer systems analyst or an accountant. Libraries are full of books telling you how to do it. The only textbooks for private eyes are on fiction shelves, and I don't remember ever reading one that told me how to interrogate an eight-year old without feeling like I was auditioning for the Gestapo.”

“There are no such things as curses; only people and their decisions”

“That was the trouble with moving houses; no matter how carefully you packed the books, they never ended up on the new shelves in quite the right place.”

“I'm not into little boys till they're old enough to have their own credit card.”