because he's Will - Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

"When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed."

"I told him I was going to betray you, and betray Lyra, and he believed me because I was corrupt and full of wickedness; he looked so deep I felt sure he'd see the truth. But I lied too well. I was lying with every nerve and fiber and everything I'd ever done...I wanted him to find no good in me, and he didn't. There is none."

"I have stolen ideas from every book I have ever read."

"I told him I was going to betray you, and betray Lyra, and he believed me because I was corrupt and full of wickedness; he looked so deep I felt sure he'd see the truth. But I lied too well. I was lying with every nerve and fiber and everything I'd ever done...I wanted him to find no good in me, and he didn't. There is none."

"We shouldn't live as if [other worlds] mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place."