Erin Morgenstern

“Nothing is impossible.”

“The sensation reminds him of the first snow of winter, for those first few hours when everything is blanketed in white, soft and quiet.”

“The rain increases and umbrellas sprout like mushrooms amongst the graves.”

“The funeral is a quiet one, despite the number of mourners present. There are no sobs or flailing handkerchiefs. There is a smattering of color amongst the sea of traditional black. Even the light rain cannot push it down into the realms of despair. It rests instead in a space of thoughtful melancholy.”

“Mme. Padva greets them with the practiced disinterest she reserves for pretty young things.”

“Old stories have a habit of being told and retold and changed. Each subsequent storyteller puts his or her mark upon it. Whatever truth the story once had is buried in bias and embellishment. The reasons do not matter as much as the story itself.”

“You need to understand your limitations so you can overcome them.”

“Es probable que haya que tomar decisiones, y sorpresas te deparan. La vida nos lleva a lugares insospechados a veces. El futuro nunca está escrito en piedra, recuerda eso.”

“Where do you get your ideas? people ask. Sometimes they’re at the bottoms of cups of tea. Sometimes they’re lurking in my shower. Sometimes they’re waiting patiently in glass cases in museums.”

“Celia laughs and a curl of her hair falls across her cheek.Marco tentatively moves to brush it off her face, but before his fingers reach her, she pushes herself off the ledge, her silver gown a billowing cloud as she falls onto the pile of jewel-toned cushions.”

“That man has no shadow.”

“This womens skin is shimmering and pale, her long black hair is tied with dozens of silver ribbons that fall over her shoulders. Her gown is white, covered in what to Bailey looks like looping black embroidery, but as he walks closer he sees that the black marks are actually words written across the fabric. When he is near enough to read parts of the gown, he realizes that they are love letters, inscribed in handwritten text. Words of desire and longing wrapping around her waist, flowing down the train of her gown as it spills over the platform. The statue herself is still, but her hand is held out and only then does Bailey notice the young woman with a red scarf standing in front of her, offering the love letter-clad statue a sungle crimson rose.The movement is so subtle that it is almost undetectable, but slowly, very, very slowly, the statue reaches to accept the rose.Her fingers open, and the young woman with the rose waits patiently as the statue gradually closes her hand around the stem, releasing it only when it is secure.....The statue is lifting the rose, gradually, to her face. Her eye lids slowly close.”

“By the time he reaches the farm, he is sure that the Bailey he is now is closer to the Bailey he is supposed to be than the Bailey he had been the day before. He may not be certain what any of it means, but for now he does not think that it much matters.”

“All empires fall eventually. It is the way of things.”

“And there are really never endings, happy or otherwise.”

“It is too difficult to see a situation for what it is when you are in the midst of it.”

“De eso estamos hechos, como están hechos los sueños; y nuestra pequeña vida se completa con un sueño.”

“No puedes detener las cosas —dice Celia—. Sólo puedes estar preparada para que pasen.”

“Sigues dejándome. Me dejas esperando por ti una y otra vez cuando daría cualquier cosa por que te quedaras, y me está matando.”

“—El amor es voluble y fugaz —continúa Tsukiko—. Rara vez es una base sólida para tomar decisiones, en cualquier juego.”

“¿Recuerda a todos los de su público? —pregunta Marco.—No a todos ellos —dice Celia—. Pero recuerdo a las personas que me miran de la forma en que usted lo hace.—¿Qué forma es esa?—Como si no pudieran decidirse entre sí me tienen miedo o me quieren besar.—No te tengo miedo —dice Marco.”

“Mi padre solía hacer algo similar —dice ella—. Esa atractiva, encantadora seducción. Pasé los primeros pocos años de mi vida viendo a mi madre anhelarlo, fuertemente. Amándolo y deseándolo mucho después del tiempo cuando él había perdido el poco interés en ella que había podido contener. Hasta un día cuando yo tenía cinco años y ella se quitó la vida. Cuando fui lo suficientemente mayor para entenderlo, me prometí a mi misma que no sufriría por nadie. Tomará mucho más que esa encantadora sonrisa tuya para seducirme.”

“There is so much that glows in the circus, from flames to lanterns to stars. I have heard the expression “trick of the light” applied to sights within Le Cirque des Reves so frequently that I sometimes suspect the entirety of the circus is itself a complex illusion of illumination” .”

“Her father picks different names for her as they change locales, but he uses Miranda often, presumably because he knows how much it annoys her.”

“The Cloud Maze. “ An Excursion in Dimension A Climb Though the Firmament; There Is No Beginning There Is No End Enter Where You Please Leave When You Wish Have No Fear of Falling”

“I'm not certain I understand the rules," Marco says."You don't need to understand the rules. You need to follow them.”

“Los placeres más finos son siempre los inesperados”

“El aroma es a menudo subestimado, cuando puede ser lo más evocador.”

“Better to have a single perfect diamond than a sack of flawed stones.”

“Because everything requires energy,' she recites obediently, eyes still focused on her hand. 'We must put effort and energy into anything we wish to change.”

“Natural talent is a questionable phenomenon. Inclination perhaps, but innate ability is extremely rare.”

“...He is sure that the Bailey he is now is closer to the Bailey he is supposed to be than the Bailey he had been before”

“Our instructors do not understand how it is. To be bound to someone in such a way. They are too old, too out of touch with their emotions. They no longer remember what it is to live and breathe within the world. They think it simple to pit any two people against each other. It is never simple. The other person becomes how you define your life, how you define yourself. They become as necessary as breathing. Then they expect the victor to continue on without that. It would be like pulling the Murray twins apart and expecting them to be the same. They would be whole but not complete.”

“It's too late. It was too late by the time I arrived in London to turn your notebook into a dove; there were too many people already involved. Anything either of us does has an effect on everyone here, on every patron who walks through those gates. Hundreds if not thousands of people. All flies in a spiderweb that was spun when I was six years old and now I can barely move for fear of losing someone else.”

“Trapped in silence, Marco traces apologies and adorations across Celia's body with his tongue. Mutely expressing all the things he cannot speak aloud.He finds other ways to tell her, his fingers leaving faint trails of ink in their wake. He savors every sound he elicits from her.The entire room trembles as they come together.And though there are a great many fragile objects contained within it, nothing breaks.”

“He remembers when he was very small his mother once said she wished happiness and adventure for him. If this does not count as adventure, he is not sure what does.”

“I am already married," she remarks to the empty air, twisting the ring on her right hand that covers an sold, distinctive scar.”

“I am tired of denying myself what I want for fear of breaking things I cannot fix. They will break no matter what we do”

“This is not magic. This is the way the world is, only very few people take the time to stop and note it.”

“If I have not been completely honest with you, it is only because I know a great deal of things that you do not want to know. I am going to ask that you trust me when I tell you I am trying to make things better. It is an extremely delicate balance and there are a great many factors involved. The best we can do right now is take everything as it comes, and not to worry ourselves over things that have happened, or things that are to come.”

“Ich habe im Leben viel gesehen. Einiges davon würde ich lieber vergessen, denn letztlich fordert ea seinen Tribut. In gewisser Weise fordert alles seinen Tribut. Genau wie alles mit der Zeit verblasst. Ich bin da keine Ausnahme von der Regel.”

“Du glaubst, du könntest mit dem Schmerz nicht leben. Mit einem solchen Schmerz lebt man nicht. Man kann ihn nur aushalten.”

“Du musst deine Grenzen kennen, damit du sie überwinden kannst. Du möchtest doch gewinnen, oder?”

“You look like a ghost," Bailey says. He can think of no better way to describe it. "You appear the same way to me, so which of us is real?”

“You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Rêves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus. You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.”

“Could you do such things when you were a dancer?' Tara asks her, as Tsukiko pulls a leg up impossibly far over her head.'I would have had a much busier social calendar if I could,' Mme. Padva replies with a shake of her head.”

“The silence that falls between them is a comfortable one. He longs to reach over and touch her, but he resists, fearful of destroying the delicate camaraderie they are building. He steals glances instead, watching the way the light falls over her skin. Several times he catches her regarding him in a similar manner, and the moments when she holds his eyes with hers are sublime.”

“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.”

“Chandresh relishes reactions. Genuine reactions, not mere polite applause. He often values the reactions over the show itself. A show without an audience is nothing, after all. In the response of the audience, that is where the power of performance lives.”

“We must put effort and energy into anything we wish to change.”