“Mandy would much rather have imaginary friends who were real than real friends who were imaginary.”

“She shakily rushed towards the car to find Alecto casually standing beside it, smoking a cigarette and staring fixedly on the radio as it played the song 'Draggin the Line' by Tommy James, his expr...”

“People say that a time machine cant be invented, but theyve already invented a device that can stop time, cameras are the worlds first time machines.”

“They think Im not entirely grounded in reality, they say. They want me to go to some live-in nerdy activity ranch thing for troubled Canadian youth, that one out in Ontario where you come back prog...”

“Everything has a past, a voice, existed at some point, even things as small and seemingly meaningless as a house in a huge suburb. Its a house like every other house but at some point a family live...”

“A picture's worth a thousand words. But a single word can make you think of over a thousand pictures in your mind, over a thousand moments, a thousand memories.”

“What separates us from the animals, what separates us from the chaos, is our ability to mourn people weve never met.”

“Where else, but from the industrialized world, did the suicide hijackers learn that the huge explosions and death above a city skyline are a peculiar and effective form of communication? They have ...”

“In the time that we're here today, more women and children will die violently in the Darfur region than in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel or Lebanon. So, after September 30, you won't need th...”

“Happiness. Simple as a glass of chocolate or tortuous as the heart. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.”

“Sometimes it just feels really really wonderful to be alive.”

“If youre not happy, then something is wrong. A person comes into the world as a happy being, yet over time, the happiness fades away and they find themselves in this bubble of anxiety and misery al...”

“Is there anything more frightening than people?”

“I make my way back whistling. Gerry nods towards Mrs Brady who is standing beside the trolleys.Morning, Mrs Brady, I say cheerfully.I push her provisions out to the car.Things are something terribl...”

“Show me a fantasy novel about Chernobyl--there isn't one! Because reality is more fantastic.”