Bod said, 'I want to see life. I want to hold it in my hands. I want to leave a footprint on the sand of a desert island. I want to play football with people. I want,' he said, and then he paused and he thought. 'I want everything.

The Graveyard Book ~ Neil Gaiman

Silas said, 'Out there, the man who killed your family is, I believe, still looking for you, still intends to kill you.'
Bod shrugged. 'So?' he said. 'It's only death. I mean, all of my best friends are dead.'
'Yes.' Silas hesitated. 'They are. And they are for the most part, done with the world. You are not. You're alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you can change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you're dead, it's gone. Over. You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.'

The Graveyard Book ~ Neil Gaiman

Bod shivered. He wanted to embrace his guardian, to hold him and tell him he would never desert him, but the action was unthinkable. He could no more hug Silas then he could hold a moonbeam, not because his guardian was insubstantial, but because it would be wrong. There were people you could hug and then there was Silas.

The Graveyard Book ~ Neil Gaiman

You are not Fading. You are obvious, boy. You are difficult to miss. If you came to me in company with a purple lion, a green elephant, and a scarlet unicorn astride which was the King of England in his Royal Robes, I do believe that it is you and you alone that people would stare at, dismissing the others as minor irrelevancies.

The Graveyard Book ~ Neil Gaiman

‘There are always people who find their lives have become so unsupportable they believe the best thing they could do would be to hasten their transition to another plan of existence.'
'They kill themselves, you mean?' said Bod. He was about eight years old, wide-eyed and inquisitive, and he was not stupid.
'Indeed.'
'Does it work? Are they happier dead?'
'Sometimes. Mostly, no. It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean.'

The Graveyard Book ~ Neil Gaiman

'Name the different kinds of people.' said Miss Lupescu. 'Now.'
Bod thought for a moment. 'The living,' he said. 'Er. The dead.' He stopped. Then, '...Cats?' he offered uncertainly.

The Graveyard Book ~ Neil Gaiman