Jordan > Jordan's Quotes

“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something, in any case.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“We lead strange lives, chasing our dreams around from place to place.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon . . . is not the dragon the hero of his own story?”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“To be rather than to seem.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“I do not mourn the loss of my sister because she will always be with me, in my heart," she says. "I am, however, rather annoyed that my Tara has left me to suffer you lot alone. I do not see as well without her. I do not hear as well without her. I do not feel as well without her. I would be better off without a hand or a leg than without my sister. Then at least she would be here to mock my appearance and claim to be the pretty one for a change. We have all lost our Tara, but I have lost a part of myself as well.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“He reads histories and mythologies and fairy tales, wondering why it seems that only girls are ever swept away from their mundane lives on farms by knights or princes or wolves. It strikes him as unfair to not have the same fanciful opportunity himself. And he is not in the position to do any rescuing of his own.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“You prefer not to see the gears of the clock, as to better tell time.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“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.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“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.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“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.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“That's the beauty of it. Have you seen the contraptions these magicians build to accomplish the most mundane feats? They are a bunch of fish covered in feathers trying to convince the public they can fly, I am simply a bird in their midst.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“Wine is bottled poetry, he thinks.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“You believe you could not live with the pain. Such pain is not lived with. It is only endured. I am sorry.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“I prefer to remain unenlightened, to better appreciate the dark.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“This is not magic. This is the way the world is, only very few people take the time to stop and note it.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon, or a wolf and a scarlet-clad little girl. And is not the dragon the hero of his own story? Is not the wolf simply acting as a wolf should act?”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“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.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“I find I think of myself not as a writer so much as someone who provides a gateway, a tangential route for readers to reach the circus. To visit the circus again, if only in their minds, when they are unable to attend it physically. I relay it through printed words on crumpled newsprint, words that they can read again and again, returning to the circus whenever they wish, regardless of time of day or physical location. Transporting them at will.
When put that way, it sounds rather like magic, doesn't it?”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“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.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“Memories begin to creep forward from hidden corners of your mind. Passing disappointments. Lost chances and lost causes. Heartbreaks and pain and desolate, horrible loneliness. Sorrows you thought long forgotten mingle with still-fresh wounds.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“The circus looks abandoned and empty. But you think perhaps you can smell caramel wafting through the evening breeze, beneath the crisp scent of the autumn leaves. A subtle sweetness at the edges of the cold.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

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

“So proper for a circus girl," Mme. Padva says with with a gleam in her eye. "We shall have to loosen those corset laces if we intend to keep you an intimate dinner company."
"I expected the corset unlacing would take place after dinner," Celia says mildly, earning a chorus of laughter.
"We shall keep Miss Bowen as intimate company regardless of the state of her corset," Chandresh says. "Make a note of that," he adds, waving a hand at Marco.
"Miss Bowen's corset is duly noted, sir," Marco replies, and the laghter bubbles over the table again.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“The rain increases and umbrellas sprout like mushrooms amongst the graves.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“The sensation reminds him of the first snow of winter, for those first few hours when everything is blanketed in white, soft and quiet.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“Perhaps it is controlling the chaos within more than the chaos without.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“I have never lied, “ Mr. Barris counters, standing as well. “I do not share what I am not at liberty to say. I gave my word and I intend to keep it but I have never lied to you. You never even asked me, you assumed I knew nothing.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus