“The truth is that the heroism of your childhood entertainments was not true valor. It was theatre. The grand gesture, the moment of choice, the mortal danger, the external foe, the climactic battle whose outcome resolves all--all designed to appear heroic, to excite and gratify and audience. Gentlemen, welcome to the world of reality--there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand? Here is the truth--actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested.”
― The Pale King
― The Pale King
“The Secret Garden was what Mary called it when she was thinking of it. She liked the name, and she liked still more the feeling that when its beautiful old walls shut her in no one knew where she was. It seemed almost like being shut out of the world in some fairy place. The few books she had read and liked had been fairy-story books, and she had read of secret gardens in some of the stories. Sometimes people went to sleep in them for a hundred years, which she had thought must be rather stupid. She had no intention of going to sleep, and, in fact, she was becoming wider awake every day which passed at Misselthwaite.”
― The Secret Garden
― The Secret Garden
“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”
― The Secret Garden
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”
― The Secret Garden
“True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see or cheer. This is the world.”
― The Pale King
― The Pale King
“Gentlemen, welcome to the world of reality—there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand? Here is the truth—actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested.”
― The Pale King: An Unfinished Novel
― The Pale King: An Unfinished Novel
TKC Alumni
— 25 members
— last activity May 22, 2023 09:20AM
Alumni, staff, faculty, and friends of The King's College in New York City. Keeping in touch, talking about books. ...more
Audrey’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Audrey’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Audrey
Lists liked by Audrey




























