How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"What's this about, Elinor?" she had muttered when she was back in the car. "Since when did you long for human company? High time you were home again, before you go right around the bend." (28.3)
Elinor's home is packed with books, but not with people. She doesn't welcome visitors, nor is she a people-person in general, so after her adventure with Mo and Meggie, she's eager to get home to have some peace and quiet… except for how she sometimes catches herself missing conversations and human contact.
Quote #5
Why had she never noticed before how quiet her house could be? It was silent as the grave, and the pleasure Elinor had expected to feel as soon as she was back within her own four walls was slow in coming. (28.6)
Sometimes we model our homes after what we think we want, only to discover that what we actually want is quite different. We're not thinking Elinor is going to say, "Gee, how foolish I was for surrounding myself with books for so long!" and go hog-wild on flat-screen TVs and Elvis paraphernalia instead, but she might decide to make her home a little more inviting to, ya know, other human beings (and non-humans, as we'll see in the story's end).
Quote #6
"I'm not going to be here much longer anyway!" snapped Dustfinger. "Now that I have the book I will look for someone who can read me into it again, even if it's a stammerer like Darius who sends me home with a lame leg or a squashed face." (58.36)
This gives us a glimpse at how desperate Dustfinger is to get home. He doesn't care if the person he finds to read him back into Inkheart is incompetent, which carries with it the health risks of not being assembled right during the crossing from our world to the story.