AHA!" interrupted Officer Shrift, making another note in his little book. "Just as I thought: boys are the cause of everything.

— Norton Juster

And Milo, full of thoughts and questions, curled up on the pages of tomorrow's music and eagerly awaited the dawn.

— Norton Juster

And, most important of all," added the Mathematician, "here is your own magic staff. Use it well and there is nothing it cannot do for you." He placed in Milo's breast pocket a small gleaming pencil which, except for the size, was much like his own.

— Norton Juster

And some looked even more like each other than they did like themselves.

— Norton Juster

And that's why people no longer care which words they use as long as they use lots of them.

— Norton Juster

A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect. Be gone, odious wasp! You smell of decayed syllables.

— Norton Juster

But that can never be," said Milo, jumping to his feet." Don't be too sure," said the child patiently, "for one of the nicest things about mathematics, or anything else you might care to learn, is that many of the things which can never be, often are. You see," he went on, "it's very much like your trying to reach Infinity. You know that it's there, but you just don't know where — but just because you can never reach it doesn't mean that it's not worth looking for.

— Norton Juster

But why do only unimportant things?" asked Milo who suddenly remembered how much time he spent each day doing them." Think of all the trouble it saves," the man explained, and his face looked as if he'd be grinning an evil grin--if he could grin at all. "If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing, and if it weren't for that dreadful magic staff, you'd never know how much time you were wasting.

— Norton Juster

Dictionopolis is the place where all the words in the world come from. They're grown right here in our orchards."" I didn't know that words grew on trees," said Milo timidly." Where did you think they grew?" shouted the earl irritably. A small crowd began to gather to see the little boy who didn't know that letters grew on trees." I didn't know they grew at all," admitted Milo even more timidly. Several people shook their heads sadly." Well, money doesn't grow on trees, does it?" demanded the count." I've heard not," said Milo." Then something must. Why not words?" exclaimed the undersecretary triumphantly. The crowd cheered his display of logic and continued about its business.

— Norton Juster

Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.

— Norton Juster