How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"You're still here," he said. "Is something the matter?"
Sophie sniffed. "I'm old," she began.
But it was just as the Witch had said and the fire demon had guessed. Michael said cheerfully, "Well, it comes to us all in time. Would you like some breakfast?" (4.15-7)
When Sophie wakes up after her first night in the moving castle, she realizes that it's not all a dream: she has been transformed into an old woman in one day and she has left the home where she grew up for the first time. But she can't actually explain any of this to Michael, so he thinks that she is just having trouble dealing with the ordinary passage of time, which just makes these shocking shifts harder to handle.
Quote #5
Sophie cackled to herself a little, quite unrepentant. Probably she had let the besom she was using put ideas into her head. But it might persuade Howl to let her stay if everyone thought she was working for him. It was odd. As a girl, Sophie would have shriveled with embarrassment at the way she was behaving. As an old woman, she did not mind what she did or said. She found that a great relief. (5.13)
Sophie finally gets to relax a bit as an old woman. Not only has she stopped caring quite so much what people think of her as the eldest daughter of three (since there's now about a seventy-five yearage difference between her and Lettie), but she also seems almost immune to embarrassment in this form.
Quote #6
"Oh, why is it that whenever I go to Wales I always come back with a cold!" Howl croaked, and conjured himself a whole wad of tissues.
Sophie snorted.
"Did you say something?" Howl croaked.
"No, but I was thinking that people who run away from everything deserve every cold they get," Sophie said. "People who are appointed to do something by the King and go courting in the rain instead have only themselves to blame." (14.36-39)
Sophie's scolding relationship with Howl is hilarious. She never tries to feed his ego, and she's always cutting him down to size when he is being too melodramatic. And part of the reason that Sophie seems to feel the liberty to treat Howl in this manner is that she's about a million years older than he is. Sophie's banter with Howl sometimes sounds almost big-sisterly, as in this exchange, but it also has an edge of teasing that sets up their later romantic relationship believably.