" He had been so lonely, so desperately, hopelessly lonely for so long. He might very well spend the rest of his life in prison, alone. And he understood that what he wanted now was something much simpler, much more complicated than the magic he had performed. What he wanted was to turn to somebody and take hold of their hand and look up with them and marvel at the snow falling from the sky. “This,” he wanted to say to someone he loved and who loved him in return. “This. "

― Kate DiCamillo , The Magician's Elephant