Michael Bond

I'm not really supposed to be here at all, I'm a stowaway. I came down from Darkest Peru with a label round my neck, but I got mixed up with the wrong people at the docks and they put me on the wrong boat, and here I am.

Things are always happening to me. I'm that sort of bear.

I do hope there isn't a limit to the number of marmalade sandwiches I'm allowed to eat each day. I feel a bit like a bear who's been let out of his cage.

It's nice having a bear about the house.

Paddington was very polite. 'I do beg your pardon for all the trouble I'm causing you,' he said, 'but I'm rather hungry. Do you think I could have a bun or something to eat?'

Paddington had a very persistent stare when he cared to use it. It was a very powerful stare. One which his Aunt Lucy had taught him and which he kept for special occasions.

Paddington had a feeling that he would be very lucky if one day he found himself in such a place.

Paddington was always polite. 'Thank you very much, Aunt Lucy,' he said. 'I see what you mean. We're supposed to be polite to strangers, but not to point at them.'

Paddington always managed to find himself in a muddle of some sort or another, but he always managed to get out of it one way or another.

Paddington was rather pleased at the thought of being a hero. He had never been one before.

Paddington liked to keep on the right side of people. Being a bear, he felt, made it difficult to do things the wrong way round.

Paddington had already had a sticky time of it that morning. He had discovered, as he sat on the bottom step of the stairs, trying to read a book, that it was very difficult to do things the wrong way round.