Erin Morgenstern

“...have a theory that she is in love with the dream of someone and not an actual person.”

“I have been surrounded by love letters you two have built each other for years, encased in tents.”

“They are a bunch of fish covered in feathers trying to convince the public they can fly, and I am simply a bird in their midst.”

“I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark.”

“The finest of pleasures are always the unexpected ones.”

“Only the ship is made of books, its sails thousands of overlapping pages, and the sea it floats upon is dark black ink.”

“They are enthusiasts, devotees. Addicts. Something about the circus stirs their souls, and they ache for it when it is absent. They seek each other out, these people of such specific like mind. They tell of how they found the circus, how those first few steps were like magic. Like stepping into a fairy tale under a curtain of stars… When they depart, they shake hands and embrace like old friends, even if they have only just met, and as they go their separate ways they feel less alone than they had before.”

“It's not a real name," she says. "Not one that he's carried with him always. It's one he wears like his hat. So he can take it off if he wants.”

“Prospero the Enchanter's immediate reaction upon meeting his daughter is a simple declaration of: "Well, fuck.”

“The circus arrives without warning.”

“But dreams have ways of turning into nightmares.”

“I don't think there's anything wrong being a dreamer.”

“I think looking forward will be better than looking back.”

“You're in the right place at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done. Sometimes that's enough.”

“You told me love was fickle and fleeting.”

“Timing is a sensitive thing.”

“The most difficult thing to read is time. Maybe because it changes so many things.”

“I am tired of trying to hold things together that cannot be held. Trying to control what cannot be controlled. 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.”

“But you built me dreams instead.”

“To be rather than to seem.”

“I have tried to let you go and I cannot. I cannot stop thinking of you. I cannot stop dreaming about you.”

“But I'm not special", Bailey says, "not the way they are. I'm not anyone important." "I know", Celia said, "you are not destined or chosen. I wish I could tell you that you were if that would make it easier, but it is not true. You are in the right place, at the right time, and you care enough to do what needs to be done. Sometimes that is enough.”

“People don’t pay much attention to anything unless you give them reason to”

“It is difficult to see a situation for what it is when you are in the midst of it,” Tsukiko says. “It is too familiar. Too comfortable.”

“Because I do not wish to know,” he says. “I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark.”

“So it’s really best to keep your secrets when you have them, for their own good, as well as yours.”

“The Burgess sisters arrived together. Tara and Lainie do a little bit of everything. Sometimes dancers, sometimes actresses. Once they were librarians, but that is a subject they will only discuss if heavily intoxicated.”

“People are naive about such things, and they would rather write them off as evil than attempt to understand them. An unfortunate truth, but a truth nonetheless.”

“People see what they wish to see. And in most cases, what they are told that they see.”

“You prefer not to see the gears of the clock, as to better tell time.”

“Life takes us to unexpected places sometimes. The future is never set in stone, remember that.”

“I do not like sitting idly by when something clearly isn't right. I feel... not trapped but something like it, and I don't know what to about.”

“I believe you have my umbrella" he says, almost out of breath but wearing a grin that has too much wolf in it to be properly sheepish.”

“I have read for countless people on innumerable subjects and the most difficult thing to understand within the cards is always the timing. I knew that, and still it surprised me. How long I was willing to wait for something that was only a possibility. I always thought it was just a matter of time but I was wrong.”

“Like stepping into a fairy tale under a curtain of stars.”

“Do you remember all of your audiences?" Marco asks. "Not all of them," Celia says. "But I remember the people who look at me the way you do.""What way might that be?""As though they cannot decide if they are afraid of me or they want to kiss me."" I am not afraid of you," Marco says.”

“I saw in details while she saw in scope. Not seeing the scope is why I am here and she is not. I took each element separately and never looked to see that they never did fit together properly”

“I would have written you, myself, if I could put down in words everything I want to say to you. A sea of ink would not be enough.' 'But you built me dreams instead.”

“...the thrill of being surrounded by something wondrous and fantastical, only magnified and focused directly at her. The feel of his skin against hers reverberates across her entire body, though his fingers remain entwined in hers.”

“I don’t have the time to devote to circles or covens. I have to fit things in when and where I can, in stolen moments and cups of coffee.Stirring clockwise to conjure.Widdershins to banish.There’s never enough time, and rarely enough caffeine, but I make do with what I have. Besides, cauldrons and pointy hats are overrated.Sometimes I see other customers practicing. Pouring their cream and sugar with studied intent. Stirring with purpose.I add an extra spoonful of sugar to my own coffee for them, to make all of our enchantments sweeter.”

“Sting told me if I love somebody I should set them free.I doubt Sting ever loved anyone with wings. If he did he might rethink such a stupid sentiment.I suppose the point is to wait for your love to come back to you voluntarily.I wonder if there’s a difference between setting something free and letting it go?I probably did it wrong.I should stop taking advice from my radio.I worry that you’re lost.I keep a heart-shaped cage unlocked for you, out on the street where it can easily be seen.So if one day you return at least you’ll have a place to stay.”

“All you need to catch a fairy is an old birdhouse and some shiny stuff. You know, like glass and glitter, or pieces of colored plastic or metal things that’ll sparkle when the sun hits them.You can paint the birdhouse, but it doesn’t really matter what color. It’s not like how hummingbirds like red things, fairies aren’t that picky.So you take your birdhouse and shiny stuff and just hang it somewhere. High but not too high. Trees are good but fairies are everywhere so trees aren’t like, a requirement.You don’t even need to put anything over the birdhouse entrance. Once they get in they won’t be able to figure out how to get out.Fairies are kind of stupid.”

“You send me all these roses.Every time I think the last bouquet has arrived, finally, another turns up.I’m running out of vases.I didn’t know roses came in so many colors.You say they’re the perfect symbols of love because they have thorns and love is pain.I say life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.And you don’t get it.You say you love me, but you don’t speak my language.You don’t even realize I’m an orchid girl.”

“I worry hope will crush me, the way love has so many times before.Are they so different, hope and love? O & E in the same place, half of the other in each word.Both swimming in unknowns.I’ve been through the big changes. These ones should seem easier in comparison, I should be more prepared, but they don’t and I’m not.Sometimes I feel like a broken-wing butterfly, clinging to a window screen.Afraid to let go. Afraid to stay.Wondering how much wing is enough to fly.”

“You can say anything with a Post-It.I’m not entirely sure why that is.Maybe the friendliness of the squares makes it easier. A square is nicely compact and less intimidating than a full page.And they come in cheerful colors. Non-white paper is kind of inherently festive.Or maybe paper that sticks feels more important than paper that can blow away.(Though you can move them, if you need to put them somewhere else.)They might not be as lasting as words carved in stone, but Post-It thoughts will stay.For awhile, at least.”

“There is a movement happening, a quiet one.A low-profile, low-resolution revolution.Comprised of writers and dreamers, of guerrilla artists and thought-ninjas.Those with something to say.They communicate through text inscribed on true public spaces, rather than blogs and forums.Choosing fewer words, even without being bound by 140 character limits.Using ink instead of pixels.Sending messages in living, breathing space.Pens scream louder into the void.Even if permanent ink is not aptly named.”

“The past stays on you the way powdered sugar stays on your fingers. Some people can get rid of it but it’s still there, the events and things that pushed you to where you are now.”

“Love is fickle and fleeting," Tsukiko continues. "It is rarely a solid foundation for decisions to be made upon, in any game.”

“It is a matter of perspective, the difference between opponent and partner," Tsukiko says. "You step to the side and the same person can be either or both or something else entirely. It is difficult to know which face is true.”

“We lead strange lives, chasing our dreams around from place to place.”