“This is the circus of Dr. Lao.We show you things that you don't know.We tell you of places you'll never go.We've searched the world both high and lowTo capture the beasts for this marvelous showFrom mountains where maddened winds did blowTo islands where zephyrs breathed sweet and low.Oh, we've spared no pains and we've spared no dough;And we've dug at the secrets of long ago;And we've risen to Heaven and plunged Below,For we wanted to make it one hell of a show.And the things you'll see in your brains will glowLong past the time when the winter snowHas frozen the summer's furbelow.For this is the circus of Dr. Lao.And youth may come and age may go;But no more circuses like this show!”

“You remember how homesick I used to get, and what long talks we used to have coming from school? We've someway always felt alike about things.""Yes, that's it; we've liked the same things and we've liked them together, without anybody else knowing. And we've had good times, hunting for Christmas trees and going for ducks and making our plum wine together every year. We've never either of us had any other close friend. And now---”

“We don't notice things change. We know that things change, we've been told since childhood that things change, we've witnessed things change ourselves many a time, and yet we're still utterly incapable of noticing the moment that change comes--or we search for change in all the wrong places.”

“Are we defined by where we want to go or where we've been?”

“Had they not been taken, she asked, to circuses when they were children? Never, he answered, as if she asked the very thing he wanted; had been longing all these days to say, how they did not go to circuses.”

“Hell - you'll be lucky to join the circus!""I don't need to join the circus." Ethan stretches his arms to the sky, bored with the entire situation. "I live with you, don't I?""He so got Tad there," I whisper.”