“It's always sad to lose someone you care for, but it's never so bad when it's an oldie. It's as it should be. Much worse when it's a young”
This phrase may be suitable for many “places” of the story. Cassandra lost her son in an accident; Eliza lost Nell twice: when she had to give her to Rose and when she put her on a ship to Australia; Adeline lost her Rose in an accident. The author shows how empty become the souls of these people who stayed alone.
“All are shaped by things beyond their control, traits inherited, traits learned.”
This phrase concerned Linus: when he was a child and didn’t manage to go through the labyrinth, something broke in him: he became more and more cruel, cold-hearted. “For Linus, the piece of his leg bone that had refused to lengthen defined him. As he grew, lameness begot shyness, shyness begot a stammer, and thus Linus grew into an unlikeable little boy who discovered that attention came his way only when he behaved badly.”
“That, my dear, is what makes a character interesting, their secrets.”
The author actually said her thought with the help of her character: the reader always solves some secrets and puzzles during the story, each time opening more and more about the characters and their lives.
