“Ending a novel is almost like putting a child to sleep – it can't be done abruptly.”

“…; but conscience, like a child, is soon lulled to sleep; and habit is our idea of eternity.”

“The end of a novel, like the end of a children's dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugar-plums.”

“A novel is what you dream in your night sleep. A novel is not waking thoughts although it is written and thought with waking thoughts. But really a novel goes as dreams go in sleeping at night and some dreams are like anything and some dreams are like something and some dreams change and some dreams are quiet and some dreams are not. And some dreams are just what any one would do only a little different always just a little different and that is what a novel is.”

“The panel put targets, for example, on nutrition, education, ending preventable child deaths, encouraging birth registration, putting an end to violence against girls, and child marriage — all of which, if enacted, will improve the lives of billions of children throughout the world.”

“He vanished abruptly, like an eel going into mud.”

“I don't like novels that end happily. They depress me so much”

“Saying my story makes me want to change it, make it sound pretty the way I do with the stories I tell the workers. I'd like it to have a beginning as grand as a ball and an ending in a whisper, like a mother tucking in a child for sleep.”

“Those with a moral deficit put on a good show, and sleep like a baby.”

“There's a moment when love makes you believe in death for the first time. You recognize the one whose loss, even contemplated, you'll carry forever, like a sleeping child. All grief, anyone's grief… is the weight of a sleeping child.”