“It was a strange life, I suppose, but it was the only one I’ve ever known. What is a normal childhood anyway?”

“It’s strange,” Moominmamma thought. “Strange that people can be sad, and even angry because life is too easy. But that’s the way it is, I suppose. The only thing to do is to start life afresh.”

“People say I'm strange that way,
'Cause I love such elementary things,
It's been my fate to compensate
For the childhood I've never known.”

“I wondered why I hadn't loved that day more, why I hadn't savored every bit of it… why I hadn't known how good it was to live so normally, so everyday. But you only know that, I suppose, after it's not normal and every day any longer.”

“I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.”

“We are now cruising at a level of two to the power of twenty-five thousand to one against and falling, and we will be restoring normality just as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway.”

“I feel strangely normal.”

“What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.”

“I’m not the person to ask about what’s normal,’ Denise answered. ‘I’ve mainly seen normal in the rearview mirror.”

“Science cannot be used to reshape humankind in a more rational mould. Any new-model humanity will only reproduce the familiar deformities of its designers. It is a strange fancy to suppose that science can bring reason to an irrational world, when all it can ever do is give another twist to the normal madness.”