“Spiritually, too, he passed for a typical Dorimarite; though, indeed, it is never safe to classify the souls of one’s neighbors; one is apt, in the long run, to be proved a fool. You should regard each meeting with a friend as a sitting he is unwittingly giving you for a portrait — a portrait that, probably, when you or he die, will still be unfinished. And, though this is an absorbing pursuit, nevertheless, the painters are apt to end pessimists. For however handsome and merry may be the face, however rich may be the background, in the first rough sketch of each portrait, yet with every added stroke of the brush, with every tiny readjustment of the “values,” with every modification of the chiaroscuro, the eyes looking out at you grow more disquieting. And, finally, it is your own face that you are staring at in terror, as in a mirror by candlelight, when all the house is still.”
― Lud-in-the-Mist
― Lud-in-the-Mist
“There’s magic in that. It’s in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose.”
― The Night Circus
― The Night Circus
“When he returned, he sat beside me but did not touch me, spoke to me kindly but revealed nothing. He was a man of secrets who did not see me. I needed no talisman here to achieve invisibility.”
― The Lost Queen
― The Lost Queen
“Follow your dreams, Bailey,” she says. “Be they Harvard or something else entirely. No matter what that father of yours says, or how loudly he might say it. He forgets that he was someone’s dream once, himself.” Bailey”
― The Night Circus
― The Night Circus
“The caretaker was certainly very ancient, a tight and desiccated thing from which all softness and moisture had long since been extracted.”
― The Screaming Staircase
― The Screaming Staircase
What's the Name of That Book???
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Chandra’s 2025 Year in Books
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