Katy Grabel > Katy's Quotes

“Opening his mouth for all to see, he picked up the burning cigarette with his tongue. I held my breath.
It perched on the tip, a surfer on a wave, in perfect balance. Then he drew in his tongue and closed his mouth around it. From his lips he blew another waft of smoke, as if he had conceived smoke from
a flame deep within. He continued dancing the cigarette around his tongue, closing his mouth on it and blowing smoke. The air smoldered. No one said a word. I felt ash and heat in my mouth, smoke in my mouth.”
― Katy Grabel, The Magician's Daughter: A Memoir

“I was to learn that light didn’t really belong to me. In my father’s show I would be the lone dim figure holding a tray or a coin bucket in the dregs of his spotlight, but jumping out of that big gold top hat would always be mine. In many cold and cavernous theaters in strange towns, I would come to crave jumping out of that hat for that one moment when no one looked at my father—they looked at me.”
― Katy Grabel, The Magician's Daughter: A Memoir