Matthew J. Kirby

“Though a story may begin as a lie, perhaps it can be made true. Perhaps their ultimate power is found in how they inspire us to action.”

“It was his fault too,” Fredrick said. “He never really asked her why. It was like he didn’t want to know.”

“Sharing his memories felt like handing over a sharp knife. A knife that others might handle carelessly. A knife that could be used to hurt him.”

“Maybe if people can't have an end to their suffering, the next thing they seek for is to know why they suffer. Suffering is a part of life in this world, part of a cycle....Stories give you a way to see things. A way to understand the events of your life. Even if you don't realize it while you're hearing the tale.”

“In life, the hardest decisions often have to be made more than once. But each time, it gets easier.”

“A story knows no honor. A story knows no allegiance. A story simply is.”

“You can never trust anyone once you've had to trap them in a cage.”

“When you are in pain, a moment is an eternity.”

“One cannot apologize for one's nature.”

“Never trust a storyteller," he says. "We're all of us liars.”

“In the early morning hours, Hannah read at the table by the dim light of dawn. She leaned in close to the pages, chin resting on her folded arms, eyes racing over the words, like chasing butterflies over the hills, to catch as many as she could before going to work. She wondered at how such tales of magic could be contained by mere paper and ink for her to read again and again.”

“The hours trampled her on their way through the day.”

“Sometimes, when we want something so badly, we fear failure more than we fear being without that thing.”

“You are stronger than me," Asa says. "And in bravery and strength, there is a kind of beauty.”

“Giuseppe would miss them as well, but in a different way than he would miss the city. A city would stay the same. The same buildings. The same streets. Not forever, but for a great long while. But Frederick and Hannah would never again be the people they were right now, standing on the dock, wishing him farewell. Tomorrow they would wake up and be a little bit different and a little bit different the day after that, and in no time they might become people he did not recognize. Giuseppe knew it because they were already different from when he had first met them. He knew it because he was different from when they had first met him.”

“He waved to the city and said good-bye.The city responded by carrying on the way it always did, traffic moving forward uninterrupted, without slowing, as if it were trying to demonstrate its permanence and show him it would still be there if he ever wanted to return. That promise was the best and only thing he could ask of it.”

“I hate them!' she cried. 'It's not fair!''No, it isn't,' Frederick said gently.'I can't do it all!''No. You can't.' After a long moment he said, 'But you can do what you can.''And what if that isn't enough?'Frederick held her shoulders and took a step back. He looked in her eyes. 'Enough for what?''For my family.''What more could they ask for than what you've given?”

“Clockwork could not run counter to its nature. The seconds, minutes, and hours moved only forward. Patient, precise, and unstoppable. Memory was an indulgence, an illusion that broke like a wave upon the juggernaut of time. The past remained the past.”