The Night Circus Book Quotes

Lena?" He glanced at the dictionary. "Are you 'pleased, contented, joyful, delighted'? Do you feel 'Lucky, fortunate'? Are things 'clever and fitting,' 'successful and suitable' for you?"

Lena stopped slicing vegetables and closed her eyes. "Read me the list again, please," she said.

He shut the book.

"What have I done, you got to stop and think an hour before you can tell me. All I ask is a simple yes or no! You're not contented, delighted, joyful?"

"Cows are contented, babies and old people in second childhood are delighted, God help them," she said. "As for 'joyful,' Lee? Look how I laugh scrubbing out the sink . . ."

He peered closely at her and his face relaxed. "Lena, it's true. A man doesn't appreciate. Next month, maybe, we'll get away."

"I'm not complaining!" she cried. "I'm not the one comes in with a list saying/stick out your tongue. Lee, do you ask what makes your heart beat all night? No! Next will you ask, What's marriage? Who knows, Lee? Don't ask. A man who thinks like that, how it runs, how things work, falls off the trapeze in the circus, chokes wondering how the muscles work in the throat. Eat, sleep, breathe, Lee, and stop staring at me like I'm something new in the house! ~ Ray Bradbury

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

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

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

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

Piccadilly Circus- that circus have a magnet for him, that circus represent life, that circus is the beginning and the ending of the world. ~ Sam Selvon

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

What's this?" he inquired, none too pleasantly. "A circus?"
"No, Julius. It's the end of the circus."
"I see. And these are the clowns?"
Foaly's head poked through the doorway.
"Pardon me for interrupting your extended circus metaphor, but what the hell is that? ~ Eoin Colfer

The Circus-Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war. This is the sixth Reich. The ground floor is full of gambling tables, like all the other casinos ... but the place is about four stories high, in the style of a circus tent, and all manner of strange County-Fair/Polish Carnival madness is going on up in this space. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

My circus train pulls through the night
Full of lions and trapeze artists
I'm done with elephants and clowns
I want to run away and join the office ~ Mike Doughty

If I'd known how wrong I was - if I'd had any idea of the awful night that lay ahead - I'd have run after him and never returned to that disgusting circus of blood, that revolting circus of death. ~ Darren Shan

I'm the first has-been star singer ever to sing with the circus. I mean, Presley sang with the circus, but that was before he became a star. ~ Tiny Tim

I'm very influenced by the circus. A lot of the dreams that I have, I'm in the circus. ~ Jeff Mangum

I'm actually not a huge circus fan in the traditional sense, but I like a lot of the circus trappings of striped tents and caramel. I lean more towards Cirque du Soleil than Barnum and Bailey. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip. ~ George Orwell

My people. I have given them a sense of individuality, integrity. I have not made them slaves of any god or any religion. Nor of any holy book or any priest. I have certainly not replaced their god. They are all a part of what I call my traveling circus. ~ Rajneesh

Most people don't know that wrestling came out of the circus. ~ Billy Corgan

If you don't want to be a gawker, you've gotta join the circus. ~ Patrick Califa

You can get the monkey off your back, but the circus never leaves town ~ Anne Lamott

If you surround yourself with clowns, don't be surprised when your life resembles a circus. ~ Steve Maraboli

The circus goes from town to town, so why run away to join it? It should be, I've decided to wait for the circus to come. ~ Dana Gould

We came here for a small, informal meeting. We find you've turned it into a circus. Well, if you're going to have a circus, you've got to have elephants. ~ Robert A. Heinlein

Words are as recalcitrant as circus animals, and the unskilled trainer can crack his whip at them in vain. ~ Gerald Brenan

When I was little, my mother told me there are basically two kinds of people in the world: town people and circus people. The kind who stay are town people, and the kind who leave are circus people. ~ Cathy Day

When I first started dating my husband, I had this weird fascination with the circus and clowns and old carnival things and sideshow freaks and all that. About a month after we started dating, he bought me this amazing black-and-white photo book on the circus in the 1930s, and I started sobbing. ~ Christina Hendricks

Yaron has elevated the way Australia perceives circus, both nationally and internationally ... I mean remarkable. ~ Cate Blanchett

I have become rather like King Midas, except that everything turns not into gold but into a circus. ~ Albert Einstein

If you are a student you should always get a good nights sleep unless you have come to the good part of your book, and then you should stay up all night and let your schoolwork fall by the wayside, a phrase which means 'flunk'. ~ Lemony Snicket

That's bad luck: three on a midget. From At The Circus ~ Groucho Marx

Jesus Alou is in the on-deck circus. ~ Jerry Coleman

When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained. ~ Edward R. Murrow

Q: How is being at a singles bar different from going to the circus? A: At the circus the clowns don't talk. ~ Various

Thanks to the circus between my ears, I can seize upon the smallest disquieting observation and from it extrapolate a terror of cataclysmic proportions. ~ Dean Koontz

The whole world makes comic book movies now. ~ M. Night Shyamalan

But you built me dreams instead. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Wolves don't perform in a circus, and people with a mind of their own, don't perform in a circus either. ~ Avijeet Das

Something about the circus stirs their souls, and they ache for it when it is absent. ~ Erin Morgenstern

If you can't ride two horses at once, you shouldn't be in the circus. ~ James Maxton

The circus doesn't stop. A federal appeals court has postponed the recall election. How stupid are we? Even our recalls get recalled. ~ Jay Leno

I always wanted to play baseball and join the circus. Now I have both. ~ Graig Nettles

My class is not a three ring circus. ~ Hetty King

Rock 'n' roll is like a circus today. ~ Ray Manzarek

Damn everything but the circus. ~ Corita Kent

Jackie wears even more makeup than those scary circus people. You know, when you go to the circus and you accidentally see a trapeze artist close-up and they are orange. ~ Louise Rennison

How can you have a rock n' roll circus without a midget? ~ Nikki Sixx

On Friday night, I was reading my new book, but my brain got tired, so I decided to watch some television instead. ~ Stephen Chbosky

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

In Roslyn, Pennsylvania, we started our real-life family circus. They provided the inspiration for my cartoons. I provided the perspiration. ~ Bil Keane

A chess tournament disguised as a circus. ~ John Connally

I am sad, sad as a circus-lioness ... ~ Jean Rhys

I am a Topshop homing pigeon! I can walk into the Oxford Circus branch and ferret out the best bits in minutes. ~ Ashley Madekwe

I want to be a traveling circus in that big-league uniform, like everybody else. ~ Dontrelle Willis

I look like a casual, laid-back guy, but it's like a circus in my head. ~ Steven Wright

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

By the time 'Dumbo's Circus' wrapped production of its 120 episodes, I had an agent, and I had scored my first feature film gig. ~ Jim Cummings

Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the circus has left town. ~ George Carlin

We've become so glorified in the movie-star system that it's become this artificial royalty. The truth is that we're circus clowns. ~ Nicolas Cage

A circus is like a mother in whom one can confide and who rewards and punishes. ~ Burt Lancaster

Being an actor is well paid, but it's a bit like being a circus traveler. ~ Ben Chaplin

When the spirit is understood, then life becomes not at all common, but a constant magical circus in which you see yourself reflected in all forms and all formlessness. ~ Frederick Lenz

Kat had been picking things up since her third birthday, when Hamish and Angus's father took them all to the circus because he needed to "borrow" an elephant. ~ Ally Carter

Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy the Church. America Hollywood. ~ Erica Jong

Life is a circus ring, with some moments more spectacular than others. ~ Janusz Korczak

I reckon if I ever marry, she will have to be a strong woman in a circus or something. ~ Robert E. Howard

Well, I bought a ticket to the circus. I don't know why I was surprised to see elephants. ~ Norris Church Mailer

So far as the colleges go, the sideshows are swallowing up the circus. ~ Woodrow Wilson

On the high wire, within months, I'm able to master all the tricks they do in the circus, except I am not satisfied. ~ Philippe Petit

Vagabond Circus was about change. It moved from place to place, and reconfigured based on available performers. The ringmaster loved that about the circus. "Without change, we are dead," he often said. ~ Sarah Noffke

When I was younger, I wanted to own a circus and create this bizarre revue that went from town to town. I suppose, in a way, I got my wish because when you're working on a film, you're in a traveling circus. ~ Neil Burger

But I think the children of actors share a certain pragmatic approach. One is denied some of that 'running away with the circus' element of being an actor. ~ Toby Jones

I'm divorced and I've been to the circus and seen the clowns. This ain't my first rodeo. ~ Naomi Judd

The days are usually filled with nonsense and every now and again somebody flies by the circus to party on your dime. ~ Ian Astbury

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

I enjoy being a hyphenate. I've always thought of my career as a plate spinner in the circus. ~ Neil Patrick Harris

In a world full of lions and tigers entertaining the masses, have you ever seen a wolf performing in a circus? ~ Akilnathan Logeswaran

Love has been described as a three-ring circus: First comes the engagement ring, then the wedding ring, and after that the suffering. ~ Bob Phillips

[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

I don't think we can do it any other way," Nick said practically. "The circus is going to make a big fuss about it." It was all part of the hype of being circus stars, but ~ Danielle Steel

The circus is the only fun you can buy that is good for you. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

It has always been a happy thought to me that the creek runs on all night, new every minute, whether I wish it or know it or care, as a closed book on a shelf continues to whisper to itself its own inexhaustible tale. ~ Annie Dillard

Although I am an old man, night is generally my time for walking. ~ Charles Dickens

Clowns are the pegs on which the circus is hung. ~ P.T. Barnum

I hate to witness animals in captivity - or see circus elephants paraded down the streets. When animals are caged, it's a loss of what they are. ~ K.A. Applegate

I never doubted my talent. If talent was the circus, then I was its ringmaster and audience, applauding its every move. ~ Philip Schultz

Commas in The New Yorker fall with the precision of knives in a circus act, outlining the victim. ~ E.B. White

I'm a street photographer, but I'm interested in any ironic, whimsical images, and there's something very romantic about a circus. ~ Mary Ellen Mark

I hate clowns and I would never do anything getting near a clown, I can't go to the circus. ~ Ty Simpkins

There are those who say that life is like a book, with chapters for each event in your life and a limited number of pages on which you can spend your time. But I prefer to think that a book is like a life, particularly a good one, which is well to worth staying up all night to finish. ~ Daniel Handler

God is just one more Clown
In this Circus of mine
(from song "no tunnel too dark") ~ Vineet Raj Kapoor

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

Going back to Georgiana Drew and John Drew, and my great-grandfather Maurice Barrymore, and it was such a sort of circus of odd, interesting people that loved acting. ~ Drew Barrymore

Tell the truth and read story books;it will take you to the magical moment in a glory night. ~ H.G.Wells

Look - The moon thumbs through night's book. Finds a lake where nothing is printed. Draws a straight line. That's all it can. That's enough. Thick line. Straight toward you. - Look. ~ Rolf Jacobsen

What a circus act we women perform every day of our lives. Look at us. We run a tightrope daily, balancing a pile of books on the head. Baby-carriage, parasol, kitchen chair, still under control. Steady now! This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Damn everything but the circus! ... The average 'painter' 'sculptor' 'poet' 'composer' 'playwright' is a person who cannot leap through a hoop from the back of a galloping horse, make people laugh with a clown's mouth, orchestrate twenty lions. ~ E. E. Cummings

King Arthur's Knights had been the first book Arthur had read late at night under the covers with a torch...it was he supposed, thinking back on it, the first book that had showed him what reading was really all about. ~ Charlie Lovett

I'm in the retail business, not the circus business. ~ Philip Green

I'm like a circus standing on two legs. ~ Nuno Roque

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

My first novel, 'John Crow's Devil,' freed me up to write about the past, and 'The Book of Night Women' freed me up to have a book totally based on voice and being very spontaneous. ~ Marlon James