• "Do you remember? After you caught me" "You said I'm sorry" "I wish I hadn't. That was my last thought. I wished I had one more chance to say what really mattered; to say how much I loved you, how grateful I was for every moment I was with you. But by the time I said what I wanted to, it was too late. But you brought me back. You gave me my wish. One more chance to say what I really wanted to say... Kiss me, once more. Kiss me."

Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux

• There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.
• There are those hearts, reader, that never mend again once they are broken. Or if they do mend, they heal themselves in a crooked and lopsided way, as if sewn together by a careless craftsman. Such was the fate of Chiaroscuro. His heart was broken. Picking up the spoon and placing it on his head, speaking of revenge, these things helped him to put his heart together again. But it was, alas, put together wrong.
• Love, as we have already discussed, is a powerful, wonderful, ridiculous thing, capable of moving mountains. And spools of thread.
• Say it, reader. Say the word 'quest' out loud. It is an extraordinary word, isn't it? So small and yet so full of wonder, so full of hope.
• Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux's love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous.
• Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love - a powerful, wonderful thing. And a ridiculous thing, too.
• Everything, as you well know (having lived in this world long enough to have figured out a thing or two for yourself), cannot always be sweetness and light.
• Why would you save me? Because you, mouse, can tell Gregory a story. Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.