Outside has everything. Whenever I think of a thing now like skis or fireworks or islands or elevators or yo-yos, I have to remember they're real, they're actually happening in Outside all together. It makes my head tired. And people too, firefighters teachers burglars babies saints soccer players and all sorts, they're all really in Outside. I'm not there, though, me and Ma, we're the only ones not there. Are we still real?

— Emma Donoghue

People don't always want to be with people. It gets tiring.

— Emma Donoghue

People move around so much in the world, things get lost.

— Emma Donoghue

...real loneliness is having no one to miss. Think yourself lucky you've known something worth missing.

— Emma Donoghue

Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.

— Emma Donoghue

Sometimes words were like glass that broke in her mouth.

— Emma Donoghue

Sometimes you must shed your skin to save it.

— Emma Donoghue

Stories are a different kind of true.

— Emma Donoghue

That's what you got for being a servant of no ambition: a shrunken life, hung up like a gibbet as a warning to others.

— Emma Donoghue

The crow flew closer, as if to hear its praises.

— Emma Donoghue