The Starless Sea Quotes

“Everyone is a part of a story, what they want is to be part of something worth recording”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Sea

“Far beneath the surface of the earth, hidden from the sun and the moon, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. Stories written in books and sealed in jars and painted on walls. Odes inscribed onto skin and pressed into rose petals. Tales laid in tiles upon the floors, bits of plot worn away by passing feet. Legends carved in crystal and hung from chandeliers. Stories catalogued and cared for and revered. Old stories preserved while new stories spring up around them.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Sea

“She found she no longer minded that the stories would linger. That some enjoyed them and others did not but that is the nature of a story. Not all stories speak to all listeners , but all listeners can find a story that does, somewhere, sometime. In one form or another.”
― Erin Morgenstern

“The place is sprawling yet intimate. It is difficult to measure its breadth. Halls fold into rooms or galleries and stairs twist downward or upward to alcoves or arcades. Everywhere there are doors leading to new spaces and new stories and new secrets to be discovered and everywhere there are books.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Sea

“She gives him a hint of a bow as she returns to her feet, a gentle nod of her head, a movement that reminds him of the beginning of the dance. (Even a pirate can recognize the beginning of a dance.)

The next night the pirate stays back from the bars, a polite distance that could be closed in a single step, and the girl comes a breath closer. Another night and the dance continues. A step closer. A step back. A movement to the side.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Sea

“He returns to the blur of velvet and firelight in the main room, kicking off his shoes as he walks, managing to remove his suit jacket and vest before he reaches the bed but he is asleep before he can deal with additional buttons, linen sheets, and lamb's-wool pillows swallowing him like a cloud and he welcomes it, his last thoughts before sleeping a fleeting mix of reflections on the evening that has finally ended, questions and worries about everything from his sanity to hot to get paint out of his hair and then it is gone, the last wisp of thought wondering how you go to sleep if you're already dreaming.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Sea

“He wanders alone but safe in his loneliness, confused but comforted by his confusion - a blanket of bewilderment to hide himself under.”
― Erin Morgenstern

“A story is like an egg, a universe contained in its chosen medium. The spark of something new and different but fully formed and fragile. In need of protection. You want to protect it, too, but there's more to it than that. You want to be inside it (...). You want to be in the story, not observing it from the outside. You want to be under the shell. The only way to do that is to break it. But if it breaks, it is gone.”
― Erin Morgenstern