I felt like I was seeing Shannon through a new lens, undistracted by Jennifer's nuclear glow. I could see how pretty she really was, how kind her eyes were.

— Kenneth Oppel

IMBECILE!" the chef shouted. "Next time why don't you just put your whole HAND in the food, hey? Yes, your whole hand, or maybe your FACE! I arrange the food on plates with care, are you understanding what I am telling you? It is part of the art form of cooking, yes? A lovely plate of food is a thing of beauty! And then you, NUMSKULL, come along and put your fat greasy FINGERS all over my plate, and SHAKE the plate, and move my food all around the plate until it looks like pigs' vomit!"" Chef Vlad!" I cried out in delight.

— Kenneth Oppel

Individuality: ten. Cautiousness: three. Combativeness: nine." She looked over and gave me a wink. "Well, what did you expect from a pirate's daughter? Hope: eight. Adaptiveness. What's that?" Kate actually blushed. "I think it has something to do with your attractiveness to the opposite sex."" Ten," said Nadia, smiling modestly. (Sky breaker by Kenneth Opel)

— Kenneth Oppel

I took [Kate's] hand in mine, and felt her fingers squeeze back. And I thought: home. It took me completely by surprise. But I suppose that once you bid farewell to your first home, you're always looking for another—that place where you can feel happy and strong and at your best. For three years I'd called the Aurora home. But now that I lived in Paris, it was not the city itself that was home. It was Kate.

— Kenneth Oppel

Let me get you all some punch,” I said.“You're leaving us?” said Isabel, sounding panicky.”I'll be right back,” I promised. “If anyone comes near you, just scream and run.

— Kenneth Oppel

None of us gets to choose how we're born, it's what we make of ourselves afterward.

— Kenneth Oppel

Nothing's scarier than having a sick child, and one so newly born, and so vulnerable. It's the worst thing for a parent.

— Kenneth Oppel

The baby was warm against my chest. I knew I was broken too. I wasn't like other people. Furthermore, I was scared and weird and anxious and sad lots of the time, and I didn't know why. My parents thought I was abnormal, I was pretty sure. They said I wasn't, but you don't get sent to a therapist if you're normal. Sometimes we really aren't supposed to be the way we are. It's not good for us. And people don't like it. You've got to change. You've got to try harder and do deep breathing and maybe one day take pills and learn tricks so you can pretend to be more like other people. Normal people. But maybe Vanessa was right, and all those other people were broken too in their own ways. Maybe we all spent too much time pretending we weren't.

— Kenneth Oppel

The preface? Why would he waste time with the preface? Skip the preface and move on to the meat of the thing!

— Kenneth Oppel

The sky pulsed with stars. Some people say it makes them lonesome when they stare up at the night sky. I can't imagine why. There's no shortage of company. By now there's not a constellation I can't name. Orion. Lupus. Serpens. Hercules. Draco. My father taught me all of their stories. So when I look up I see a galaxy of adventures and heroes and villains, all jostling together and trying to outdo one another, and I sometimes want to tell them to hush up and not distract me with their chatter. I've glimpsed all the stars ever discovered by astronomers, and plenty that haven't been.

— Kenneth Oppel