I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else. - Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

"I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy."

"Words save our lives, sometimes."

"I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible."

"Books were safer than other people anyway."

"I lay on the bed and lost myself in stories. I liked that. Books were safer than other people anyway."