“The rain poured down on London so hard that it seemed that it was dancing spray, every raindrop contending with its fellows for supremacy in the air and waiting to splash down.”

“Looking back, none of this would have happened if I’d brought lip gloss the night of the Homecoming Dance.”

"There is one mirror in my house. It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs. Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month, the day my mother cuts my hair."

“They say death aims only once and never misses, but I doubt Ty Yorkshire thought it would strike with a scrubbing brush.”

"The first time I killed a man it was an accident."

“I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen.”

“One summer night I fell asleep, hoping the world would be different when I woke.”

"Prague, early May. The sky weighed gray over fairy-tale rooftops, and all the world was watching."

“It’s midnight, it’s sweltering, and I might be high on Vicodin, but that guy—that guy right over there—that’s him. The him.”

"I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather. This is where the bed I shared with my sister, Prim, stood."

. “Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.”

"How does one describe Artemis Fowl? Various psychiatrists have tried and failed."

"Joost had two problems: the moon and his mustache."