“ It's like they've forgotten everything important, isn't it? I mean, forgotten things like cats and dancing exist. Katherine Rundell
“ Sometimes it seemed difficult for the adults in Sophie's life to tell between 'carried away' and 'absolutely correct but unbelieved. Katherine Rundell
“ There were, in Feo's experience, five kinds of cold. There was wind cold, which Feo barely felt. It was fussy and loud and turned your cheeks as red as if you'd been slapped, but couldn't kill you eve… Katherine Rundell
“ But those coins are wishes! You’re stealing other people’s wishes!”The look Matteo gave her was so flinty, she could have chipped a tooth on it. “If you have money to waste on wishes, you don’t need t… Katherine Rundell
“ Keep you secret, then, my darling. Everybody needs them. Secrets make you tough, and wily. Katherine Rundell
“ Cowardice is for cowards. Fear is for people with brains and eyes and functioning nerve endings. Katherine Rundell
“ Let me introduce you. Sophie, this is Miss Eliot, from the National Childcare Agency. Miss Eliot, this is Sophie, from the ocean. Katherine Rundell
“ He was thirty-six years old, and six foot three. He spoke English to people and French to cats, and Latin to the birds. He had once nearly killed himself trying to read and ride a horse at the same ti… Katherine Rundell
“ You have been the great green adventure of my life. Without you my days would be unlit. Katherine Rundell
“ You will never be tougher than you are now. Children are the toughest creatures on the planet. They endure. Katherine Rundell
“ Perhaps, she thought, that’s what love does. It’s not there to make you feel special. It’s to make you brave. It was like a ration pack in the desert, she thought, like a box of matches in a dark wood… Katherine Rundell
“ If music can shine, Sophie thought, this music shone... 'It's like eight thousand birds, Charles!'When the music closed, she clapped until the rest of the audience had stopped and until her hands were… Katherine Rundell
“ No harm in listening. Alexei's a child, not a wizard. We don't lose control of our brains by listening. Katherine Rundell