Trenton Lee Stewart famous quotes

I think when I started to write The Mysterious Benedict Society that I had that kind of thing in mind - the notion of having to be able to solve puzzles and riddles because enormous stakes rode upon your ability to do that.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Writing #Thinking #Mind

Now listen, we need to be quiet as mice. No, quieter than that. As quiet as...as..." "Dead mice?" Reynie suggested. "Perfect," said Kate with an approving nod. "As quiet as dead mice.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Perfect #Needs #Quiet

You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn't depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Family #Blood #Remember

May your adventures bring you closer together, even as they take you far away from home.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Teamwork #Travel #Adventure

One problem with being a leader, is that even among your friends you are alone, for it is you -- and you alone -- to whom the others look for final guidance.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Leader #Finals #Looks

She announced her age right away, for children consider their ages every bit as important as their names.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Children #Names #Age

Was it worse for him, Reynie wondered, to have felt loved and then rejected? Or was it worse to have always felt alone?
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Rejected

Reynie's fce fell. 'It's not funny, Kate.' For a moment - a fleeting moment - Kate looked desperately sad. 'Well, of course it's not funny, Reynie Muldoon. But what do you want me to do? Cry?
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Want #Fleeting #Cry

They stared out their window at night enough to know where the darkest shadows lay, and it was to the darkest shadows they kept.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Night #Shadow #Window

At this, Constance sat down on a rock and covered her face. She seemed smaller than ever now - so small the harbor breeze might catch her up like a scrap of paper and carry her away, carry her into nowhere.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Rocks #Paper #Might

The gym is always open, except when it's closed.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Gym

So what's your team called?" asked Kate, twisting her legs into a pretzel-like configuration, "We're called the Winmates because we're inmates who win." Kate looked back and forth at Reynie and Constance, searching their expression for signs of delight. "You gave yourselves a name?" asked Constance. Now it was Kate's turn to be baffled. "You didn't? How can you have a team without a name?
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Team #Winning #Names

You've read half the books in this house? This whole house?" "Well, approximately half." Sticky said. "To be more accurate, I suppose I've read more like" - his eyes went up as he calculated - "three sevenths? Yes, three sevenths." "Only three sevenths?" said Kate, pretending to look disappointed. "And here I was prepared to be impressed.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Book #Eye #House

I tend to find characters who lack vulnerability dull.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Character #Dull #Vulnerability

You are the smartest children i know. You just don't beleive it.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Children

Oh dear,"cried Rhonda just then, for Mr. Benedict, awash in strong emotion, has gone to sleep.with a sudden loud snore he toppled forward into the attentive arms of Rhonda and Number Two, who eased him to the floor. "What's wrong with him?" Constance asked. "He has narcolepsy," said Kate. "He steals a lot?" "That's kleptomania," Sticky said. "Mr. Benedict sleeps a lot.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Strong #Sleep #Two

In other words, you are our last possible hope. You are our only hope.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Lasts

Kate seemed to have doubled in size. She had drawn back her broad shoulders and set her jaw, and something in the stance called to mind the contained ferocity of a lioness. But it was the fierceness in Kate's bright blue eyes that had the most striking effect. The sort of look that made you thankful she wasn't your enemy. "It's not going to be over," Kate said firmly "Until we say so.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Eye #Blue #Mind

It just supports my personal opinion that he's a wacko
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Support #Opinion

Something about this made Reynie uneasy. Had he done so badly? Was this meant to test his courage? He did as he was told, closing his eyes and bracing himself as best he could. "Why are you flinching?" the pencil woman asked. "I don't know. I thought maybe you were going to slap me." "Don't be ridiculous. I could slap you perfectly well with your eyes open. I'm only going to blindfold you.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Eye #Done #Tests

I was always interested in the possibility maybe of finding my way into a big adventure.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Adventure #Way #Possibility

Everything is as it should be.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Should

Good grief! They're going to call us inside soon, and Sticky hasn't even met Madge yet!" "Who's Madge?" Sticky asked. "Her Majesty the Queen!
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Queens #Grief #Majesty

Poor Kate,"said Constance,"she's lost her marbles.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Poor #Said #Lost

Why, then, do you think the white player might have done it?" Reynie considered. He imagined himself moving out his knight only to bring it right back to where it started. Why would he ever do such a thing? At last he said,"Perhaps because he doubted himself.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Moving #Player #Thinking

Oh, here's a clever one. Do you remember this question from the first test?It reads, 'What wrong with this statement?' And do you know what Constance wrote in reply? She wrote, 'What's wrong with you?
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Clever #Firsts #Tests

Grow the lawn and mow the lawn always keep the TV on, brush your teeth and kill the germs, poison apples, poison worms.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Apples #Germs #Tvs

The missing aren't missing, they're only departed, All minds keep all thoughts - so like gold - closely guarded,
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Missing #Departed #Mind

Is this what family is like: the feeling that everyone’s connected, that with one piece missing, the whole thing’s broken?
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Family #Broken #Missing

Every great thinker keeps a journal, you know.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Thinker #Great Thinkers #Journal

Children are capable of such open rudeness.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Children #Rudeness #Capable

And please don't call me that." I didn't call you 'that', I called you George Washington.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Call Me #Please

Rules and school are tools for fools! I don't give two mules for rules.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#School #Two #Giving

She was a thin woman in a mustard-yellow suit, with a yellowish complexion, short-cropped rusty red hair, and a stiff posture. She reminded Reynie of a giant walking pencil.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Hair #Yellow #Giants

'Is that really the best you can say? An average-looking boy? An awful lot of boys are average-looking, S.Q.!' And poor S.Q., he just kept arguing that 'this boy was especially average-looking.' " ~ Kate Wetherall, The Mysterious Benedict Society
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Boys #Average #Awful

Remember, children. For every exit, there is also an entrance. ~ Milligan, The Mysterious Benedict Society
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Children #Exit #Mysterious

Daddy, will you take me to the mill, again?
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Daddy #Mills

Au contraire..." "What?" Constance demanded. Curtain blinked. ~ The Perilous Journey
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Journey #Curtains

I'm an orphan!" Constance cried gleefully. "I'm an orphan!" ~ The Prisoner's Dilemma
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Orphan #Prisoner #Dilemma

Milligan! Come and tell us why you're so dreadfully glum!" ~ Constance, The Mysterious Benedict Society
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Mysterious

Listen, just do what you think is right, and we'll support it." ~ Sticky Washington, The Prisoner's Dilemma
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Thinking #Support #Prisoner

If we're just trying to be accurate, then how about 'The Doomed to Fail Bunch'?" said Constance. "Honestly! We can't even name ourselves.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Names #Trying #Failing

In the candle's flickering light, the library's thousands of books emerged from the shadows, and for a moment Nicholas could not help admiring them again. During free time he had almost never looked up from the pages he was reading, but now he saw the books anew, from without rather than from within, and was reminded of how beautiful they were simply as objects. The geometrical wonder of them all, each book on its own and all the books together, row upon row, the infinite patterns and possibilities they presented. They were truly lovely.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Love #Beautiful #Book

If you like to tell stories and compose sentences, and if you work hard at being good at these things, then you are a writer even if you haven't published anything.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Hard Work #Writing #Stories

No one seems to realize how much we are driven by FEAR, the essential component of human personality. Everything else - from ambition to love to despair - derives in some way from this single powerful emotion.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Powerful #Ambition #Personality

What is life without laughter?
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Laughter #What Is Life

Mr. Harinton was real. There were adults in the world who would actually make sacrifices for others - not just for their own families but for anyone who needed help. Nicholas had always had the impression that families looked after one another, and he had come to understand that, on rare ocassions, children would do the same... But this was different. What Mr. Harinton was doing certainly helped Nicolas - but it also simply felt right to Nicholas. It made him want to be exactly like Mr. Harinton himself.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Children #Real #Sacrifice

Somhow those Ten Men -- at the time they were called Recruiters, of course -- discovered that Constance had been at the library. Most likely one of their informants saw her come out, because it was on that very day that the brutes showed up and threatened the librarians. Who told them nothing, incidentally.' 'The same thing happened in Holland,' Kate reflected. 'You'd think these guys would learn their lesson -- librarians know how to keep quiet.' 'It helps to ask politely,' said Mr. Benedict
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Men #Thinking #Guy

No sooner had he thought this than he realized what was anchoring his happiness. It was purpose. He knew what he wanted to do. He knew the way he thought things should be, and Mr. Harinton was proving that other people--even adults--could feel the same way. Nicholas had something to aim for now. He might not know what he wanted to be when he grew up, but he knew with absolute certainty how he wanted to be.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#People #Purpose #Might

Nicholas Benedict did have an exceptional gift for knowing things (more exceptional, in fact, than most adults would have thought possible), and yet not even he could know that this next chapter was to be the most unusual-and most important-of his entire childhood. Indeed, the strange days that lay ahead would change him forever, though for now they had less substance than the mist through which he ran.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Knowing #Childhood #Forever

But you have said it too often, Mr. Benedict!" said Mrs. Perumal in an imperious tone that was quite out of character. "And if you continue in this vein, I'm afraid we'll be compelled to cut our visit short. Surely there are other establishments that would host an entire troup of guests - indefinitely and without reward - and not feel obliged to apologize for it!
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Character #Cutting #Guests

Remember the White Knight.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Knights #White #Remember

Don't thank me,' Mr. Curtain called as the door slid closed. 'Impress me!
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Doors #Curtains #Impress

... Speaking of which, the boys weren't actually touching the breifcases in the trunk, I hope?" Wondering how Milligan knew, Kate stuck her head out the office door and gave Reynie and Sticky a warning look. They nodded and tried to close the trunk as quietly as possible. "They aren't now anyway." "Good," Milligan said, picking up his duffel bag. "I'd hate to have to speak sternly to them again. It embarasses me to be so ineffective.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Hate #Boys #Doors

I've only just arrived, Kate. It may surprise you to learn that you were my top priority.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Priorities #May #Surprise

The answer to this riddle has a hole in the middle, And some have been known to fall in it. In tennis it's nothing, but it can be received, And sometimes a person may win it. Though not seen or heard it may be perceived, Like princes or bees it's in clover. The answer to this riddle has a hole in the middle, And without it one cannot start over.
-- Trenton Lee Stewart

#Fall #Winning #Starting Over