Quotes from Gordon Korman

What purpose in nature is served by parsley, when it has no taste and no nutritional value; and

When he sees other dogs being brushed or combed, he puffs up with pride, knowing that grooming for him is much more special and requires earsplittingly loud equipment and a fifty-foot extension cord.

That cat hates me. - Ian Why should it be different from everybody else here, Lucian? - Eisenhower

Good things happen when you get out of your comfort zone and try stuff.

The Janus ought to put you on the payroll to scoop up a few of our artworks that fell into the wrong hands over the years. - Jonah

Watching her as the skid speeds up, blurring the world around us, it dawns on me that this girl has zero fear.

Why is it, he said faintly, that sooner or later, everybody we love dies?

My students are very motivated, he finished in a disappointed tone. Kids these days, Dan commiserated.

This is just our hobby, Dan answered quickly. Instead of collecting stamps, we find creepy old places and poke around.

I can't change the past.

We need Nellie and dry clothes. Dan glared resentfully at the retreating yaht in the distance. A grenade launcher would be nice, too.

That's the most sexist idea I've ever heard," Nellie said harshly. "I'm female, so I have to be clueless. He's male, so he's got a great sense of direction.

Birdman, because he has really big ears that could easily expand to wings if he gets bitten by a radioactive canary. Crazy, I know, but in comics, that kind of thing happens all the time. Anyway, I can always switch him to Sleeping Beauty. He's not that beautiful, but he is that sleeping.

Do you know there's such a thing as Tater Tots? Back in Happy Valley, they told us we always had the very best, but we didn't have Tater Tots. Another Osiris lie.

There's a crunch as the corrugated cardboard display is crushed between my weight and the wrought-iron rail. Model pieces and papers sail out of the open box and all the way down to the basement. Horrified, I drop to the stair in a desperate attempt to keep my hard work from disappearing forever. It's too late. The box is broken, the papers still fluttering.

Amy sighed anxiously. Her brother was immature and annoying. But perhaps his most unpleasant feature was the fact that he was usually right.

If she hadn't adopted the hippie lifestyle, she would have made a terrific Marine drill sergeant.

parents genuinely loved her—not like my dad

If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck." Well, that isn't always true. It looks like Ambrose, and it talks like Ambrose. But no way that's Ambrose.

All I can think of is that this makes me the greatest seventh-grade president in the history of student government.

The sounds provide as much variety as the sights—sirens, honking horns, squealing brakes, blaring stereos, leaf blowers, jackhammers, excited shouts. It's like a guy who's been fed bread and water his whole life suddenly stumbling into a humongous feast with every kind of food and drink imaginable.

there was no wild celebration in the building—not unless you count Megan Mercury's reaction when she realized Noah wouldn't be at cheerleading practice.

you-know-who." Amy

As rich Cahill superstars went, Fidelio Racco was definitely on the B-list. Maybe even the D-list. Google had heard of him, but a search for his surname placed him below Racco Auto Body in Toronto and Trattoria Racco in Florence, and only slightly ahead of the Rack O'Lamb Irish Chop House in Des Moines.