Patrick Carman Quotes

In the morning light, I remembered how much I loved the sound of wind through the trees. I laid back and closed my eyes, and I was comforted by the sound of a million tiny leaves dancing on a summer morning.

How?" Dan asked. "You want to help us find this secret because …?" He wasn't about to be taken in by this woman just because she was pretty and had an awesome accent. Had James Bond taught him nothing?

In my view, there are many different kinds of hugs. There are the ones you give to huggers, people who hug all the time. These, to me, are by far the least special of all hugs. I see the outstretched arms for the third time in as many days-the expectation of an embrace- and I am drawn in by a feeling of good manners rather than sincere closeness. It's like shaking hands. There are also those I hug only once in a great while because I hardly ever see then, but who I don't necessarily feel that close to. Those kinds of hugs are probably the most awkward. I'm expected to hug so I do it, even if I'm not sure I want to. Hugs like these are brief, and I am always left wondering what sort of look the other person had on their face where I couldn't see. And then there are HUGS. Like the hugs my parents give me when I'm having a bad day, any sort of hug from Armon the giant, or a hug like the one with Yipes right now. Yipes and I are not apt to embrace each other unless there's a good reason to do it, but when there is a good reason, it's a hug that feels like it ought to.

It all scares me, and it's all like clothes in a dryer that just keep rolling around in my head from one day to the next.

He had big plans for you," I said with tears rolling down my face. "That's why it took so long." Sir Alistair stopped and looked back, looking with affection at Marco, Yipes, and me. "We all play our part. Some roles just dray on a little more than others.

Yeah, a lot more than he likes you," said Oh. It didn't look like Milo appreciated the joke very much.
"That's debatable," said Milo.
"Is not," said Oh.
She leaned in and put her pink cast against my cheek, kissing me quickly on the lips.
"That's incredibly unfair. If we were gay you'd be up a creek without a paddle. You wouldn't even be in the game."
"He's right, you know," I said.
"Aw. You guys are having a bromance. That's really cute.

My world has always been so small, hidden behind walls.

He has a frightening aversion to text messaging in general.
"It's a phone. It's for making calls, not for writing novels".

Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad to get what you need.

I was beginning to see fewer of our weaknesses and more of our strengths; the events of the day were a reminder of how each of us had certain abilities that the rest did not. It was as if we were each a part of a whole body- one the hands, another the legs, and so on- dependent on one another and working best when we performed in unity. I felt inadequate then, unsure what part of this body I might be.

When I was a kid, I used to love it when one of my friends would jump out from behind a door and try to scare me. I always did the same thing in response.

I remember all the way back in high school thinking about writing books. And, in fact, I've written a lot of stories. I've got dozens of stories I've written that no one's ever seen.

There's something really fun about being scared, and I guess that was at least part of why I wanted to film certain scenes from my new book, 'Skeleton Creek.'

Decisions by committee are almost always long in coming and dead wrong. A world-changing vision comes from one person, not five or or twenty or a hundred, and more often than not, the best of plans are laid to waste by the many.

The hardest thing to find is peace, though it lay in plain view

Life is better without the walls, everyone agrees. Still, sometimes I'm afraid of the outside world, and every so often in my private thoughts I wish the walls were still there to protect me. It feels like growing up, as if the safety of the childhood has been stripped away, and I've woken up on the edge of something dangerous. The walls are gone and I can do as I please. It's a freedom I'm not so sure I'm ready for.

There was a time when I thought I turned terrible things over in my mind because I read and wrote too many scary stories. (Note self: start writing about unicorns and bunnies)

Getting to the point where I was ready to write a book has been about a 20-year journey of being, really honestly, too afraid to try - which I think is pretty common for people who are trying to write a large piece of fiction.

I killed a guy, maybe two. Possibly three.
I have one power. Not two or three or four. Just one.
I met a girl, and she changed everything.

Twenty minutes into our walk away from the wall put us deep in a forest of fir, pine, cottonwood, and aspen trees. The lush forest floor was alive and danced with shadows cast from an endless parade of swaying trees. As we approached early evening it was cool and peaceful. The sound of the trees moving in the wind high above seemed like a friendly traveling companion, calling us farther and farther into the depths of the forest.

As exciting, difficult, and memorable as our past can be, there comes a time when we have to get on with living.

I travel to a lot of schools, and I see firsthand that while we do still have a lot of traditional readers, we don't have as many as we used to. And we're missing an awful lot of kids entirely ... Do I want to get rid of the Internet? Obviously, I don't want that because of all the amazing things it brings.

I took English courses in college, but I don't have an English degree. I have a degree in economics.

I watched the night sky with it's countless stars and its moon, and I wondered about the universe and all that had been created, why the stars and the moon rose at night and the sun in the day, how vast it must be, how I could never understand the infinite measure of its size.

I wasn't really conscious about 'The 39 Clues' movie when I wrote 'The Black Circle.'

Friends can feel such things in times of peril, as if a long, thin string holds them carefully together, tugging at one another through the open space of a dangerous world. The

I could not disagree more," said Ganesh, my father giving me a hidden wink. "If we build toward them they'll see it as hostile and we'll be pulled into a confrontation. Now, I agree that we've got to expand - these last few days in Bridewell have clearly shown that. Within a few years Bridewell and the towns against the sea will be at maximum capacity, and then what will we do? We have over ten miles between us and Ainsworth, which I think is a good healthy distance. We can't expand off the cliffs from Lathbury or Turlock, so those are dead ends. Bridewell is stuck in the middle with no place to grow. I think our best option is to start building two-and three-story buildings. Grow up instead of out. We could grow to twice our size if we just abolished the single-level rule.

But what was I but a scared child lost in a strange world? How could I replace all that been lost? Where was my place in the world?

I'm a visual thinker, thrill seeker, and I'm easily distracted. I see everything I'm writing, and I think it naturally affects the pace of things.

Let's assume for a moment that you, Oh, do not choose God. Does this prevent Him from choosing you? I conclude, from these many verses, that it does not. Either He saves everyone or He saves no one.

We can't go back, Alexa", he said. " We can't go back once we've started growing up, and the world can't be made simple again.

The size of your body is just right. The only question is whether you're big enough inside.

There's something comforting about the companionship of animals in a new place.

Like most people, there are things I love about Amazon. It's cheap, it's fast, and it's at my doorstep. But Amazon will never replace the important role my local indie plays in my community.

Scares that kid,

Thorn gazed back and forth between the two of us. You could have left me behind, but you stayed. I won't forget that.

She was gorgeous and fearless and I was in awe.

I go to a Catholic school and I'm telling you: invisibility = eternal damnation. You can take it to the bank.

After allthe events of the previous summer he was more prtective then ever,and i whanted to be sure i knew the rules i'd be likely to break once we arrived in bridewell.

You can't be gone. I need you here, with me. What am I going to do without you?

There are so many ways to tell a story. With multiplatform books, we are reimagining what literacy can be.

Physically, mentally, emotionally
it seems like every part of me is broken in one way or another.

Humans are the killers of magic, you see.....People can be cruel, unkind, mean, selfish. We can be a great many dreadful thing, and at one time or another we are all guilty of bad behavior. What we fail to realize is that we are the only ones who can do such things.

I've stabbed two people with a fork today. What's wrong with me?

I really hope that all librarians aren't like Gladys Morgan. Because I'd really like , at some point, to walk into a library and not be afraid for my life.

I have failed, and failed, and failed again,' he said. 'But no amount of failure can move Elyon's hand of affection away from me. It's inescapable. To live boldly for that kind of love is the least I can do.

He has guided my hands in ways I don't always understand, ways that people of this world would scoff at. But there is a purpose for all that I have ever made, even if I don't understand for certain what that purpose is.

There would be times in the years to come when he ( Murphy ) would accompany me back and forth between the two worlds I'd come to know. Other times, Yipes would venture out over the water, and even Matilda came along once. There were loads of clothes and seeds and jars of honey and other such things cramping our space, and children of every age moving between the pillars and The Land of Elyon. And always, always, there was Marco at the pedals, helping guide the way across the Lonely Sea. I have yet to venture off the course that was set for me by Sir Alistair Wakefield, but I see certain things on the old maps that make me curious. Are there other places to explore, somewhere in the immeasurable reaches of the Lonely Sea? Maybe my own children or their children will find these strange spots on the map. My way is set an in stone, and I don't feel the need to veer off any longer. It has taken many days of searching and fighting, but in the end I have found what I was looking for. I have found my way home.

It occurred to me then that it was in times of struggle that I found the best parts of myself - courage, loyalty, an unexpected peace - and I always discovered what I needed to break through and go on.

It seems as though the only things causing pain around here are these ridiculous walls we keep building.

You don't get to choose what the world would require of you. You got to choose only how you responded.