Night Circus Quotes

Now you know about it, and you can do whatever you want to it. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I feel 'The Night Circus' has a complete story arc in one book. I like it as a single volume. It feels complete to me, and I wouldn't want to stretch it out into something it's not. ~ Erin Morgenstern

And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise. Things keep going on, they overlap and blur, your story is part of your sister's story is part of many other stories, and there is no telling where any of them may lead. ~ Erin Morgenstern

[after guard dogs frozen mid-attack] 'How long are the dogs going to stay hanging there like that?' ask Yulia. 'I want to make friends with them. Otherwise, i'll be left with a latent psychological complex that's bound to affect my personality and sexual preferences. ~ Sergei Lukyanenko

Every once in awhile you find a novel so magical that there is no escaping its spell. The Night Circus is one of these rarities - engrossing, beautifully written and utterly enchanting. If you choose to read just one novel this year, this is it ~ Danielle Trussoni

We must put effort and energy into anything we wish to change. ~ Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I love this quote uttered by the character Widget in The Night Circus. He credits it to Herr Thiessen but knows it is a literary quote by the another author.
Wine is bottled poetry ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I am haunted by the ghost of my father, I think that should allow me to quote Hamlet as much as I please. ~ Erin Morgenstern

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. ~ Erin Morgenstern

It is destroying me that I cannot ask you to dance. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I couldn't tell the difference between what was real and what I wanted to be real. ~ Erin Morgenstern

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. ~ Erin Morgenstern

they start in the ice garden, through the twins grow impatient with leisurely pace that celia prefers to take around the frozen trees. before they have traveled halfway through the space they are begging to ride the carousel instead. ~ Erin Morgenstern

The most difficult thing to read is time. Maybe because it changes so many things. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I knew that, and still it surprised me. How long I was willing to wait for something that was only a possibility. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Even the ground beneath his feet feels unsatisfying to his boots. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Is it not that bad to be trapped somewhere, then? Depending on where you're trapped?"
"I suppose it depends on how much you like the place you're trapped in," Widget says.
"And how much you like whoever you're stuck there with," Poppet adds, kicking his black boot with her white one. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Life takes us to unexpected places sometimes. The future is never set in stone, remember that. ~ Erin Morgenstern

But you built me dreams instead. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I wanted you to have a place where you felt safe enough to cry if I could not be with you. ~ Erin Morgenstern

It is a matter of perspective, between opponent and partner ... You step to the side and the same person can be either or both or something else entirely. ~ Erin Morgenstern

I love the idea that people are listening to "Tales" during all types of activities. Knitting in their favorite chair, rock climbing, sky diving, driving at night. ~ Glenn McQuaid

I am a late starter. I like to go on into the night when it's quiet and everything has shut down. I find that's where music and minds open in the dark. ~ Shelby Lynne

England is so surrounded by the boredom of conventionalities, that it is all one to them whether music is good or bad, since they have to hear it from morning till night. For here they have flower-shows with music, dinners with music, sales with music ... ~ Frederic Chopin

Jace perched on the windowsill and looked down at him. "You really don't get this bodyguard thing, do you?"
"I didn't even think you liked me all that much," said Simon. "Is this one of those keep-your-friends-close-and-your-enemies-closer things?"
"I thought it was keep your friends close so you have someone to drive the car when you sneak over to your enemy's house a night and throw up in his mailbox."
"I'm pretty sure that's not it ~ Cassandra Clare

And now that it's legit, I am gonna hammer you," Stitch's grin widened and in one abrupt move, he arched his hips and threw Zak over to his back while still holding on to his legs. "All night. And then the night after… and after…" He lapped at Zak's neck.
Every single nerve in Zak's body stood alert, as if waiting for Stitch's command. Zak moaned, feeling a rush of heat to his face, and rapidly pulled on the sides of Stitch's cut. The moment his lover's weight collapsed on top of him, he knew there wasn't anything he wanted more ~ K.A. Merikan

Children are the only people who accept a mood of wonderment, who are ready to welcome a perfect miracle at any hour of the day or night. Only a child can entertain an angel unawares, or to meet Sir Launcelot in shining armor on a moonlit road. ~ Kenneth Grahame

... ! And would I have been this way, would I have been this way on this night, and at this moment, sitting with you now, would I be talking like this, would I be moving like this, would I look at you and at the world like this, if I really were a parricide, when even the inadvertent killing of Grigory gave me no rest all night - not from fear, oh! not just from fear of your punishment! The disgrace of it! And you want me to reveal and tell about yet another new meanness of mine, yet another new disgrace, to such scoffers as you, who do not see anything and do not believe anything, blind moles and scoffers, even if it would save me from your accusation? ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Some people come to our shows and think they're gonna spend the night just listening to love songs, and they're pretty much surprised cause we do a lot of rock and roll. ~ Bobby Hatfield

Then one night we used the baby's head as a bong. (I'm pretty sure that's the only time that sentence has ever been used in a memoir. One would hope. I'd check it out on the Internet, but to be honest; that whole horse-enema-fetish stuff scared the shit out of me, so I'm not even going to look.) ~ Jenny Lawson

The death of her father and mother and the rich acres of and that had come down to her had set a train of suitors on her heels. For two years she saw suitors almost every evening. Except two they were all alike. They talked to her of passion and there was a strained eager quality in their voices and in their eyes when they looked at her. The two who were different were much unlike each other. One of them, a slender young man with white hands, the son of a jeweler in Winesburg, talked continually of virginity. When he was with her he was never off the subject. The other, a black-haired boy with large ears, said nothing at all but always managed to get her into the darkness, where he began to kiss her.

For a time the tall dark girl thought she would marry the jeweler's son. For hours she sat in silence listening as he talked to her and then she began to be afraid of something. Beneath his talk of virginity she began to think there was a lust greater than in all the others. At times it seemed to her that as he talked he was holding her body in his hands. She imagined him turning it slowly about in the white hands and staring at it. At night she dreamed that he had bitten into her body and that his jaws were dripping. She had the dream three times, then she became in the family way to the one who said nothing at all but who in the moment of his passion actually did bite her shoulder so that for days the marks of his teeth showed. ~ Sherwood Anderson

~Posters with torn edges hanging from rotten walls~

The doctor told me something once
she said
STOP DRINKING
I slapped her across the face with this
NO
I walked right out of that office
went right down to the hole
I told the bartender
WHISKEY, MOTHERFUCKER
he poured and he poured
and I slapped my money down on that bar
the man I had been driving around with
he just sort of sat there next to this hooker
she probably had something rotten
way down there between her legs
her eyes told of no soul
I emptied the bottle down my throat
and ordered some chips
the bartender told me
THEY'RE STALE
and I give him a
I DON'T FUCKIN' CARE,
GIVE ME SOMETHIN'
He slid me a ham sandwich dripping with cheap low-fat mayo and said
ENJOY
I went back to my room
and talked all night
so much conversation
it turned the toilet bowl pale ~ Dave Matthes

The original reality of Amitabha is our own Dharma body, It shines out brightly everywhere, in the South, North, East, and West, It is like the autumn moon that lies in the high, vast sky, In the silence of the night its brilliance shines far over the ocean. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

I'm in love with you, Cody. And I know that this is all complicated and confused in a wholly fucked-up way. Meg's death was a tragedy and the worst kind of waste, but I don't want to lose you because of the fucked-up-way I found you."
"Fucking Ben McCallister. You make me cry more than almost any person I've ever met."
"I shed a few tears myself last night. ~ Gayle Forman

Within this arena, which grows more stable night after day, generations work and love and hope and vanish. New generations tread on the corpses of their fathers, continue the work above the abyss and struggle to tame the dread mystery. How? By cultivating a single field, by kissing a woman, by studying a stone, an animal, an idea. ~ Nikos Kazantzakis

So why was tonight not so good?" he asked, desperate to shut himself the fuck up.
"My father. And then…well, I got stood up."
Rehv frowned so hard he actually felt a slight sting between his eyes. "For a date?"
"Yeah."
He hated the idea of her out with another male. And yet envied the motherfucker, whoever he was.
"What an ass. I'm sorry, but what an ass."
Ehlena laughed, and he loved everything about the sound, especially the way his body warmed a little more in response.
Man, to hell with a hot shower. That soft, quiet chuckle was what he needed.
"Are you smiling," he said softly.
"Yeah. I mean, I guess. How did you know?"
"Was just hoping you were."
"Well, you can be kind of charming."
Quickly, as if to cover up the compliment, she said, "The date wasn't a big deal or anything. I didn't know him that well. It was just coffee."
"But you ended the night on the phone with me. Which is so much better."
She laughed again. "Well, I won't ever know what it's like to go out with him."
"You won't?"
"I just…well, I thought about it, and I don't think dating is a good idea for me right now."
His surge of triumph was sacked when she tacked on, "With anyone."
"Hm."
"Hm? What does hm mean?"
"It means I have your phone number."
"Ah, yes, you do - " Her voice caught as he shifted around. "Wait, are you…in bed?"
"Yeah. And before you go any farther, you don't ~ J.R. Ward

Words of Emancipation didn't arrive until the middle of June so they called it Juneteenth. So that was it, the night of Juneteenth celebration, his mind went on. The celebration of a gaudy illusion. ~ Ralph Ellison

Most of the guests left the rehearsal dinner at the country club; the remaining group--a varied collection of important figures in both of our lives--had skittered away to the downtown hotel where all of the out-of-town guests were staying. Marlboro Man and I, not ready to bid each other good night yet, had joined them in the small, dimly lit (lucky for me, given the deteriorating condition of my epidermis) hotel bar. We gathered at a collection of tiny tables butted up together and wound up talking and laughing into the night, toasting one another and spouting various late-night versions of "I'm so glad I know you" and "I love you, man!" In the midst of all the wedding planning and craziness, hanging out in a basement bar with uncles, college friends, and siblings was a relaxing, calming elixir. I wanted to bottle the feeling and store it up forever.
It was late, though; I saw Marlboro Man looking at the clock in the bar.
"I think I'll head back to the ranch," he whispered as his brother told another joke to the group. Marlboro Man had a long drive ahead, not to mention an entire lifetime with me. I couldn't blame him for wanting a good night's sleep.
"I'm tired, too," I said, grabbing my purse from under the table. And I was; the long day had finally set in.
The two of us stood up and said our good-byes to all the people who loved us so much. Men stood up, some stumbling, and shook hands with Marlboro Man. Women blew kisses and mouthed Love you guys! to ~ Ree Drummond

Stopping at her house is a neighbor boy with evil on his mind, cause he's been peeking in Angie's room at night through her window blind. ~ Helen Reddy

Children would beg for a peppermint drop each time he walked into town, and they'd follow behind, asking for a second and a third. When he died suddenly, while working late at his office, every boy and girl in the village reported smelling mint in the night air, as if somehing sweet had passed them right by. ~ Alice Hoffman

Walk slowly and deliberately during the day and take big steps at night. ~ Marty Rubin

Good mothers know all about patience. They know about lugging the promise of a baby around for nine whole months, about the effort of pushing and puffing until a head pops; they know about being pinned to a spot, wincing as gums make contact with sore nipples; they know about keeping a vigil over a cot all night, praying that the doctor's medicine will work; they know that even when patience seems to be at an end, more is required. Always more. ~ Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

If you meditate on your ideal, you will acquire its nature. If you think of God day and night, you will acquire the nature of God. ~ Ramakrishna

Ode to Drowing"

If rain signals
the lover's return
then I am lost

in the desert
burning
like the brain fever bird

looking for images of you
through mesquite
and teak

Because there's no sign
of you
or what I know

to be as you
only clouds adrift
in a vanquished sky

like vines
of throbbing arms
and mouths

drinking at the shore
intoxicated
with the night ~ Tishani Doshi

There was no point in taking issue with Marilla's overweening self-regard. It was as infinite as a starry night. ~ Eloisa James

I knew Chaz was a good guy, if misguided and gullible. He'd swallowed Buck's side of what happened between us, had argued with Erin that maybe I was drunk that night and didn't remember everything clearly. He was probably one of those boys to whom rapists were ugly men who jumped out of bushes, assaulting random girls. Rapists weren't your nice-guy coworker, or your frat brother, or your best friend. Maybe it never occurred to him that his best friend was capable of ripping a girl's self-confidence away in the span of five minutes. ~ Tammara Webber

If a choreographer had been underneath the plastic sheet on a rainy day or night, he would certainly have reproduced the scene: twenty-five people, short and tall, on their feet, each holding a tin can to collect the water that dripped off the roof, sometimes in torrents, sometimes drop by drop. If a musician had been there, he would have heard the orchestration of all that water striking the sides of the tins. If a filmmaker had been there, he would have captured the beauty of the silent and spontaneous complicity between wretched people. But there was only us, standing on a floor that was slowly sinking into the clay. ~ Kim Thuy

In interviews with riders that I've read and in conversations that I've had with them, the same thing always comes up: the best part was the suffering. In Amsterdam I once trained with a Canadian rider who was living in Holland. A notorious creampuff: in the sterile art of track racing he was Canadian champion in at least six disciplines, but when it came to toughing it out on the road he didn't have the character.
The sky turned black, the water in the ditch rippled, a heavy storm broke loose. The Canadian sat up straight, raised his arms to heaven and shouted: 'Rain! Soak me! Ooh, rain, soak me, make me wet!'
How can that be: suffering is suffering, isn't it?
In 1910, Milan - San Remo was won by a rider who spent half an hour in a mountain hut, hiding from a snowstorm. Man, did he suffer!
In 1919, Brussels - Amiens was won by a rider who rode the last forty kilometers with a flat front tire. Talk about suffering! He arrived at 11.30 at night, with a ninety-minute lead on the only other two riders who finished the race. The day had been like night, trees had whipped back and forth, farmers were blown back into their barns, there were hailstones, bomb craters from the war, crossroads where the gendarmes had run away, and riders had to climb onto one another's shoulders to wipe clean the muddied road signs.
Oh, to have been a rider then. Because after the finish all the suffering turns into memories of pleasure, and the greater the suffering, the great ~ Tim Krabbé

Buried how long?"
The answer was always the same: "Almost eighteen years."
You had abandoned all hope of being dug out?"
Long ago."
You know that you are recalled to life?"
They tell me so."
I hope that you care to live?"
I can't say."
Shall I show her to you? Will you come and see her?"
The answers to this question were various and contradictory. Sometimes the broken reply was, "Wait! It would kill me if I saw her too soon." Sometimes it was given in a tender rain of tears, and then it was, "Take me to her." Sometimes it was staring and bewildered, and then it was, "I don't know her. I don't understand."
After such imaginary discourse, the passenger in his fancy would dig, and dig, dig – to dig this wretched creature out. Got out at last, with earth hanging about his face and hair, he would suddenly fall away to dust. The passenger would then start to himself, and lower the window, to get the reality of mist and rain on his cheek.
Yet even when his eyes were opened on the mist and rain, on the moving patch of light from the lamps, and the hedge of the roadside retreating by jerks, the night shadows outside the coach would fall into the train of night shadows within. Out of the midst in them, a ghostly face would rise, and he would accost it again.
Buried how long?"
Almost eighteen years."
I hope you care to live?"
I can't say."
Dig – dig – dig – until an impatient movement from one of the two pas ~ Charles Dickens

In L.A., I love being with my friends and being able to eat out and wear tank tops at night. ~ Bella Hadid

I write in the mornings or afternoons - I'm not a night owl and can write for only four or five hours maximum. ~ Sarah Hall