“Words to me were magic. You could say a word and it could conjure up all kinds of images or feelings or a chilly sensation or whatever. It was amazing to me that words had this power.”

“It was a joy! Words weren't dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you.”

“Those words, that voice, had more power over me than any phantom ever could.”

“Words were power, words tried to change you, to shape bridges of longing that no one could ever really cross.”

“I hadn't fully realized just how powerful words could be before this. Whoever came up with the saying 'sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me' was talking out of his or her armpit.”

“Words and magic were in the beginning one and the same thing, and even today words retain much of their magical power.”

“The only antidote to the magic of images is the magic of words.”

“I wondered if she was trying to convey something to me, something she could not put into words - something prior to words that she could not grasp within herself and which therefore had no hope of ever turning into words.”

“And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.”

“Every word was a singing sparrow, a magic trick, a truffle for me. The words made me laugh in delight.”