Most of the time she could slip into other people, so to speak, and discover what they really meant and who they actually were behind their words. But she couldn’t do it with this visitor. No matter how often she tried to understand his thoughts, she always got the feeling that she was falling into empty darkness, as if there weren’t even a person there at all.

Anyone who still thinks that listening is nothing special should simply try to do it half as well.

The human world is full of weak-minded people, who think they’re as clever as can be and are convinced that it’s terribly important to persuade even the children that Fanstastica doesn’t exist.

Your life is short, son. Ours is long. Much too long. But we both live in time. You a short time. We a long time. The Childlike Empress has always been there. But she’s not old. She has always been young. She still is. Her life isn’t measured by time, but by names. She needs a new name. She keeps needing new names.

Nothing can change for them, because they themselves can’t change anymore.

One night I saw the moon, shining so big and round, and I tried to grab it out of the sky.

He had never been willing to believe that life had to be as gray and dull as people claimed. He heard them saying: “Life is like that,” but he couldn’t agree. He never stopped believing in mysteries and miracles.

He was handsome and strong, but somehow that wasn’t enough for him. He also felt the need to be tough and inured to hardship... But how was he to come by that quality in this luminous garden, where all manner of fruit was to be had for the picking?

Even when I was caught in the web, I didn’t give up hope. And as you see, I was right.

A person’s reason for doing someone a good turn matters as much as the good turn itself.