Jules > Jules's Quotes

“...but I could not sleep without proper covering and spent the rest of the night rewriting lost arguments from my past, altering history so that I emerged victorious.”
― Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

“To err is human, to purr is feline.”
― Robert Byrne, The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
― Stephen King

“People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons. From within.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination

“The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say.”
― Anais Nin

“In the end we are all caught in devices of our own making. I believe that. In the end we are all caught.”
― Stephen King, 1922

“They say that loving eyes can never see, but that’s a fool’s axiom. Sometimes they see too much.”
― Stephen King, 1922

“...and I still feel that hate today, when so many other feelings have been burned out of my heart.”
― Stephen King, 1922

“I believe that there is another man inside of every man, a stranger, a Conniving Man.”
― Stephen King

“I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.”
― Emma Goldman

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
― Anne Frank

“You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.”
― Amy Bloom

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn
Should never crave the rose.”
― Anne Bronte

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“My last thought before I fell asleep was: He is dead. My only friend. My only enemy.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“It is my belief that the World (or, if you will, the House, since the two are for all practical purposes identical) wishes an Inhabitant for Itself to be a witness to its Beauty and the recipient of its Mercies.

If I leave, then the House will have no Inhabitant and how will I bear the thought of it Empty?”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“The World feels Complete and Whole, and I, its Child, fit into it seamlessly. Nowhere is there any disjuncture where I ought to remember something but do not, where I ought to understand something but do not.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“I felt a surge of anger and for a moment I thought I would not tell him what I knew. But then I thought that it was unkind to punish him for something he cannot help. It is not his fault that he does not see things the way I do.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“Of all the billions of people in this world Raphael is the one I know best and love most. I understand much better now – better than Piranesi ever could – the magnificent thing she did in coming to find me, the magnitude of her courage. I know that she returns to the labyrinth often. Sometimes we go together; sometimes she goes alone. The quiet and the solitude attract her strongly. In them she hopes to find what she needs. It worries me. ‘Don’t disappear,’ I tell her sternly. ‘Do not disappear.’ She makes a rueful, amused face. ‘I won’t,’ she says. ‘We can’t keep rescuing each other,’ I say. ‘It’s ridiculous.’ She smiles. It is a smile with a little sadness in it. But she still wears the perfume – the first thing I ever knew of her – and it still makes me think of Sunlight and Happiness.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“Suddenly I saw in front of me the Statue of the Faun, the Statue that I love above all others. There was his calm, faintly smiling face; there was his forefinger gently pressed to his lips. [...] Hush! he told me. Be comforted!”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“but as a scientist and an explorer I have a duty to bear witness to the Splendours of the World.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“Perhaps even people you like and admire immensely can make you see the World in ways you would rather not.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“May your Paths be safe, your Floors unbroken and may the House fill your eyes with Beauty.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“The House is valuable because it is the House. It is enough in and of Itself. It is not the means to an end.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“Is it disrespectful to the House to love some Statues more than others? I sometimes ask Myself this question. It is my belief that the House itself loves and blesses equally everything that it has created. Should I try to do the same? Yet, at the same time, I can see that it is in the nature of men to prefer one thing to another, to find one thing more meaningful than another.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“Abandoning the search for the Knowledge would free us to pursue a new sort of science. We could follow any path that the data suggested to us.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi

“Do you trust the House? I ask Myself.

Yes, I answer Myself.

And if the House has made you forget, then it has done so for good reason.

But I do not understand the reason.

It does not matter that you do not understand the reason. You are the Beloved Child of the House. Be comforted.

And I am comforted.”
― Susanna Clarke, Piranesi