"Please don't put yourself down like that," Norman says gently. It's like looking in a mirror, he thinks: Quentin is being just as cruel to himself as Norman was whenever he'd hear the Goblin's voice - or his father's - berating him. Calling him weak, a failure. Useless.

"Just because things turned out so badly that you got angry, went too far ... like I did, when I created him ... It doesn't mean either of us deserve to not have real connections with people. I'm not asking you to look for that sort of thing with me - that's up to you. And it wouldn't be right of me after what happened. But ... I do think you can find someone who'll be that person for you. Someone who'll listen, and support you. Someone you can trust."