"But words are more powerful than anything."

"She smells of her cooking and the perfume Eau d'Hadrien. My mother wore it, too. She used to cook, like Lili. Our house smelled of garlic and thyme instead of sadness."

"Beautiful people don't need coats. They've got their auras to keep them warm."

"You, on the other hand, wish to know things. And no one can forgive a girl for that."

"The greenest of pastures are right here on earth."

"With 'A Northern Light,' I've already heard from teenage readers, teachers, librarians - it's been so gratifying. It's amazing that you can take something that matters so deeply to you and make it matter to someone else."

"And Robespierre, the Incorruptible, who loved us so much he cut off our heads so we would not be troubled by too many thoughts."

"God loves us, but the devil takes an interest."

"No sunrises that stop you dead with their unspeakable beuaty, either, he thought. No whales breaching only yards away from the ship, showering your awestruck self with a cold ocean rain. No songs and whiskey belowdecks at night while the wind plucks at the ship's rigging and the ice beats against her hull."

"A new word. Bright with possibilities. A flawless pearl to turn over and over in my hand, then put away for safekeeping."

"French Louis Seymour of the West Canada Creek, who knew how to survive all alone in a treacherous wilderness, and Mr. Alfred G. Vanderbilt of New York City and Raquette Lake, who was richer than God and traveled in his very own Pullman car, and Emmie Hubbard of the Uncas Road, who painted the most beautiful pictures when she was drunk and burned them in her woodstove when she was sober, were all ten times more interesting to me than Milton's devil or Austen's boy-crazy girls or that twitchy fool of Poe's who couldn't think of any place better to bury a body than under his own damn floor."

"But eating was the last thing on my mind. And I didn't see how Miss Wilcox could eat, or teach, or sleep or ever find any reason to leave this room. Not with all these books in it, just begging to be read."

"I'm not crazy, I'm curious."

"I think your vision gets better as you get older."

"He who cannot endure the bad will not live to see the good."

"Don't let the darkness that's been visited upon this family pull you in so deeply, you cannot get out. Turn back from it, darling Jo... he'd warned her. He didn't seem to understand that turning your back on the darkness didn't mean the darkness would turn its back on you."

"Together in our house, in the firelight, we are the world made small."

"You can't argue with the dead, no matter what you say, they always have the last word."

"Most of the mess that is called history comes about because kings and presidents cannot be satisfied with a nice chicken and a good loaf of bread."

"Cry your grief to God. Howl to the heavens. Tear your shirt. Your hair. Your flesh. Gouge your eyes. Carve out your heart. And what will you get from Him? Only Silence. Indifference."

"It goes on, this world, stupid and brutal.But I do not.I do not."

"For mad I may be, but I will never be convenient."

"Murder is not a suitable topic of conversation for a young lady."

"It's a good thing you and your pills weren't around a few hundred years ago or there never would have been a Vermeer or a Caravaggio. You'd have drugged 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' and 'The Taking of Christ' right the hell out of them."

"On those nights, the words were for me alone. They came up unbidden from my heart. They spilled over my tongue and spilled out my mouth. And because of them, I, who was nothing and nobody, was a prince of Denmark, a maid of Verona, a queen of Egypt. I was a sour misanthrope, a beetling hypocrite, a conjurer's daughter, a mad and murderous king."

"Fac quod faciendum est,' ' Jo read aloud. 'Do what must be done."

"Listen to your own thoughts and feelings very carefully, be aware of your observations, and learn to value them. When you're a teenager-and even when you're older-lots of people will try to tell you what to think and feel. Try to stand still inside all of that and hear your own voice. It's yours and only yours, it's unique and worth of your attention, and if you cultivate it properly, it might just make you a writer."

"Her fear was strong, but her need for the truth was stronger."

"Because I'm on the phone, Mom!''Fooling around with your friends again! Who is that?''Ahmadinejad.''Oh, my goodness! What is he saying?''That he wants to see Jeezy at the Beacon tonight. Putin's going too. He scalped a ticket from Kim Jong Il. All tha gangstas are going.''Don't be so fresh, young man!''Gotta go,' he says to me. 'Enemy forces have dropped a Momshell.''Fall back, solider. Over and out."

"I have done this-made the sad prince laugh. Made his grieving parents smile. None but me. Think you only kings have power? Stand on a stage and hold the hearts of men in your hands. Make them laugh with a gesture, cry with a word. Make them love you. And you will know what power is."

"And then I remember this morning and I wonder if it really happened or if I dreamed it. It was nice. And weird. And tender. I'm not used to tender. It's a fossil, that word. Conditions changed and it died out. Like the woolly mammoth. It just couldn't live in the same world as dick box. Ho dog. Or wiener cousins."