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1 " And if I sit in that room at the top of the house and I think about my life and if I shut my eyes from time to time and imagine being warm in the summer and I hear the bees buzzing and for a moment I truly am Alice in Wonderland, do you have the heart to tell me I am not? "
― John Logan , Peter and Alice
2 " Children don't have hearts yet, not really. They haven't been hurt into the need for one. "
3 " When I look at my own children, Mrs Hargreaves, I think… I think I know what childhood’s for. It’s to give us a bank of happy memories against future suffering. So when sadness comes, at least you can remember what it was to be happy. "
4 " In the place called Adulthood there are no Cheshire Cats... for they can't endure the suffering of the place. "
5 " We can’t live in a fantasy. Reality may be hard, but it’s all we have. "
6 " But how can you be Peter Pan? You? The Boy Who Never Grew Up? That's not you. You have egg on your collar. You can't fly. You're not Alice. Alice was a blond little girl, I know it. You're lying to me.' And then they remember. What growing up really is: when they learned that boys can't fly and mermaids don't exist and White Rabbits don't talk and all boys grow old, even Peter Pan, as you've grown old. They've been deceived. As if you've somehow been lying to them. So following hard on the smile of remembrance is the pain in the eyes, which you've caused, everytime you meet someone. "
7 " PETER: But you're 'Alice'.ALICE: As you're 'Peter'... But after all, what's in a name?PETER: What isn't?She understands. "
8 " CARROLL: In the place called Adulthood, there's precious few golden afternoons. They've gone away to make way for other things like business and housekeeping and wanting everyone to be the same, just like you, all the lives lived in neat hedgerows, all excess banished, all joyous peculiarities excised. It's grim and shabby. There are no Mad Hatters and there are no Cheshire Cats, for they can't endure the suffering of the place. ALICE: Please stop...CARROLL: That's the place called Adulthood... I'm there now. You'll be there soon enough. And you'll never leave... But here and now, in this room, and on this glass plate, and in the story I'm writing, you'll never be there... And you'll never be hurt. And you'll never be heart-sick. And you'll never be alone.... You will be beloved. "
9 " Was it the day you realized your parents aren’t perfect? When you got your firstlong trousers? Going to school? Saying hello? Saying goodbye? Your heart opens? Itbreaks? It heals? It breaks again? Which is it? "