The Kneebone Boy

All great adventures have moments that are really crap.

Look, when do the really interesting things happen? Not when you've brushed your teeth and put on your pyjamas and are cozy in bed. They happen when you are cold and uncomfortable and hungry and don't have a roof over your head for the night.

It's alarming how quickly people adjust to adventures when they are in one. You really have to work at being astonished by life.

Memory, in my opinion, is a complete noodle. It hangs on the silliest things but forgets the stuff that really matters.

People should have all their big adventures while they're still under the age of fourteen. If you don't, you start to lose your passion for big adventures. It just begins to fade away bit by bit and then you forget you ever wanted adventures in the first place.

They [the Hardscrabbles]never enjoyed it when adults playfully lied to them. The adults always think they're being amusing and imaginative, just like children. But kids never lie playfully. They lie as if their lives depended on it.

It was the right and responsible thing to do, so they put it off until later.

Rubbish," Max said. "Anyone can put on clumpy boots and pierce themselves silly. A truly dangerous person would be someone you'd never even look at twice.

Then she probably would have waved back," Max said. "And it might be a he." "Ha! Not likely," Lucia said. "Didn't you notice them?" "Them what?" Max asked. "Her... you know. She has breasts, Max! What do you think that is on her chest?" "I think it's a pair of crossed arms," Max said.

Give that man a Pixy Stix," Haddie said. "A what?" Lucia asked. "Hold on." She left then returned a moment later with a handful of colorful straws, one of which she threw at Max like a dart. He caught it in midair. That impressed Haddie and she tossed him another, just to see if he could do it again. He fumbled that one.

Then Lucia said, "So what do we do now?" "Nothing," Otto said. "Things will go on as just they always have.