Quotes by Patrick Carman

Faith never stays put. Its always challenging always questioning. Thats what makes it real.

There would be times in the years to come when he ( Murphy ) would accompany me back and forth between the two worlds Id come to know. Other times, Yipes would venture out over the water, and even Matilda came along once. There were loads of clothes and seeds and jars of honey and other such things cramping our space, and children of every age moving between the pillars and The Land of Elyon. And always, always, there was Marco at the pedals, helping guide the way across the Lonely Sea. I have yet to venture off the course that was set for me by Sir Alistair Wakefield, but I see certain things on the old maps that make me curious. Are there other places to explore, somewhere in the immeasurable reaches of the Lonely Sea? Maybe my own children or their children will find these strange spots on the map. My way is set an in stone, and I dont feel the need to veer off any longer. It has taken many days of searching and fighting, but in the end I have found what I was looking for. I have found my way home.

My strength was returning as we went on. It occurred to me then that it was in times of struggle that I found the best parts of myself-courage, loyalty, an unexpected peace- and I always discovered what I needed to break through and go on.

As exciting, difficult, and memorable as our past can be, there comes a time when we have to get on with living.

Physically, mentally, emotionally -- it seems like every part of me is broken in one way or another.

In the morning light, I remembered how much I loved the sound of wind through the trees. I laid back and closed my eyes, and I was comforted by the sound of a million tiny leaves dancing on a summer morning.

Its never too late to stop believing a lie, said Thomas. You need only courage and friends, and you have both.

Thorn gazed back and forth between the two of us. You could have left me behind, but you stayed. I wont forget that.

Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad to get what you need.

She had long been a cold and calculating person, and yet she had never given in to the darkness entirely. She would remember her mothers touch or the voice of a lost friend, and the tiniest bit of hope would return.

You cant be gone. I need you here, with me. What am I going to do without you?

I watched the night sky with its countless stars and its moon, and I wondered about the universe and all that had been created, why the stars and the moon rose at night and the sun in the day, how vast it must be, how I could never understand the infinite measure of its size.

That thing, that tiny part of The Land of Elyon, is gone but not entirely forgotten. Elyon had his reason for sending you and me on this journey. Sometimes we see something as plain as a dying leaf and our hearts grow sad, but we must always hold true and fight on, Alexa. Whatever happens to us, we will not be forgotten in the end. He will remember us.

We cant go back, Alexa, he said. We cant go back once weve started growing up, and the world cant be made simple again.

Theres something comforting about the companionship of animals in a new place.

But what was I but a scared child lost in a strange world? How could I replace all that been lost? Where was my place in the world?

Decisions by committee are almost always long in coming and dead wrong. A world-changing vision comes from one person, not five or or twenty or a hundred, and more often than not, the best of plans are laid to waste by the many.

I was beginning to see fewer of our weaknesses and more of our strengths; the events of the day were a reminder of how each of us had certain abilities that the rest did not. It was as if we were each a part of a whole body- one the hands, another the legs, and so on- dependent on one another and working best when we performed in unity. I felt inadequate then, unsure what part of this body I might be.

In my view, there are many different kinds of hugs. There are the ones you give to huggers, people who hug all the time. These, to me, are by far the least special of all hugs. I see the outstretched arms for the third time in as many days-the expectation of an embrace- and I am drawn in by a feeling of good manners rather than sincere closeness. Its like shaking hands. There are also those I hug only once in a great while because I hardly ever see then, but who I dont necessarily feel that close to. Those kinds of hugs are probably the most awkward. Im expected to hug so I do it, even if Im not sure I want to. Hugs like these are brief, and I am always left wondering what sort of look the other person had on their face where I couldnt see. And then there are HUGS. Like the hugs my parents give me when Im having a bad day, any sort of hug from Armon the giant, or a hug like the one with Yipes right now. Yipes and I are not apt to embrace each other unless theres a good reason to do it, but when there is a good reason, its a hug that feels like it ought to.

It all scares me, and its all like clothes in a dryer that just keep rolling around in my head from one day to the next.