Eva Ibbotson

It's true that adventures are good for people even when they are very young. Adventures can get in a person's blood even if he doesn't remember having them. 

And so they played some of the world's loveliest piano music - the exiled homesick girl, the humiliated, tired old man. Not properly. Better than that.

Slowly, Anna put up a hand to his muzzle and began to scratch that spot behind the ear where large dogs keep their souls.

Loneliness had taught Harriet that there was always someone who understood - it was just so often that they were dead, and in a book.

When you're sad, my Little Star, go out of doors. It's always better underneath the open sky.

She was so intelligent that she could think herself into beauty. Intelligence...they don't talk about it much, the poets, but when a woman is intelligent and passionate and good...

Shadows are cool and peaceful places for those whose minds are overstocked with treasure.

But she had to know words. She had to know everything.

You cannot stop the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can stop them nesting in your hair.