Quotes from Mary Downing Hahn

I never would have shot him

as if I cared about something as useless as long division

I was tempted to tell my father the truth, but perhaps it was better to let him go on believing that Vincent was depraved, a pervert of some kind, a child abuser. If Dad believed he'd invited a creature from myth and legend to cross his threshold, he'd have to rethink his entire concept of reality. I wasn't sure he was ready for that.

Editors always want to know what you're working on, what you're thinking about.

You look back on some little decision you made and realize all the things that happened because of it, and you think to yourself "if only I'd known," but, of course, you couldn't have known.

Odd, isn't it? You know when your birthday is, but not your death day, even though you pass the date year after year, never suspecting that some day…

I wished that the chains would break and the wind would sweep me up, up, up into the sky, beyond the clouds, beyond the sun and the moon, to some marvelous kingdom where no one ever changed and friends were friends for life.

The water is DEEP AND DARK AND DANGEROUS

WHEN YOU'RE READING YOU SHOULD PRETEND YOU'RE REALLY THERE BECAUSE IT WILL MAKE THE BOOK MOR INTERESTING!

The rules are very strict...

Time doesn't run backward, you know, and things that have been done can't be undone, no matter how hard you wish.

here, there, and everywhere"-an opinionated riddle.

People were so fragile, so easily broken, so hard to put back together. "Mr.

The lake's deep...and dark...and dangerous.

To everyone who enjoys ghost stories

Sissy tilted her chair back so far I was sure she'd fall on her head any second. Not that I cared. Maybe she'd leave if she hurt herself.

I was in a temper fit to blow the lid off a kettle of boiling water. And who wouldn't be? Since sunup, I'd been doing chores. I'd milked the cow, hauled two buckets of water from the well, fed the chickens, and then fought the hens for their eggs. Now I was down on my knees, sweat-soaked and bug-bitten, yanking weeds from the vegetable patch. My hands were caked with mud, and my nose was burned as red as a strawberry.

As Corey and I followed Grandmother out of the library, we glanced at each other. Without saying a word, I knew my sister was thinking exactly what I was thinking. Rappings and tappings, footsteps, doors opening and shutting— we could do that. And more. Bringing ghosts back to Fox Hill would be like playing haunted house all summer long.

She was not just old—she was ancient. Bent and bony, no bigger than Selene, her flyaway white hair floated around her head like dandelions gone to seed. She'd wrapped herself in a thick knitted shawl of every imaginable color woven into complex patterns—a sun here, a moon there, stars all over, rivers and trees and birds and animals. A person could look at it all day and still find something he hadn't noticed before.

Saying something mean and then claiming you're not yourself doesn't take the hurt away.

The bones came out, the bones came out, the bones came out.

I told you before--you mustn't let Edward scare you. He's a bully and a coward. What would Frank Merriwell do if he were you?" Frank Merriwell--I was thoroughly sick of hearing that name.

To keep from crying in front of everyone, I ran down the hall, opened the first door I saw, and dashed inside. Too late I realized the room was already occupied. An old man in a wheelchair sat beside a window. Of all the places I might have gone, I'd chosen Great-grandfather's sanctuary.