Haroun and the Sea of Stories Quotes

“He knew what he knew: that the real world was full of magic, so magical worlds could easily be real.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Nothing comes from nothing, Thieflet; no story comes from nowhere; new stories are born from old--it is the new combinations that make them new.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Happy endings must come at the end of something,' the Walrus pointed out. 'If they happen in the middle of a story, or an adventure, or the like, all they do is cheer things up for awhile.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“What's the use of stories that aren't even true?”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Any story worth its salt can handle a little shaking up.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Don't you know girls have to fool people every day of their lives if they want to get anywhere?”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Khattam-Shud,' he said slowly, 'is the Arch-Enemy of all Stories, even of language itself. He is the Prince of Silence and the Foe of Speech. And because everything ends, because dreams end, stories end, life ends, at the finish of everything we use his name. "It's finished," we tell one another, "it's over. Khattam-Shud: The End.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Believe in your own eyes and you'll get into a lot of trouble, hot water, a mess.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“It is all for love. Which is a wonderful and dashing matter. But which can also be a very foolish thing.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“There was once, in the country of Alifbay, a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name. It stood by a mournful sea full of glumfish, which were so miserable to eat that they made people belch with melancholy even though the skies were blue...

And in the depths of the city, beyond an old zone of ruined buildings that look like broken hearts, there lived a happy young fellow by name of Haroun, the only child of the storyteller Rashid Khalifa, whose cheerfulness was famous throughout that unhappy metropolis, and whose never-ending stream of tall, and winding tales had earned him not one but two nicknames. To his admirers he was Rashid the Ocean of Notions, as stuffed with cheery stories as the sea was full of glumfish; but to his jealous rivals he was the Shah of Blah.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Straight answers were beyond the powers of Rashid Khalifa, who would never take a short cut if there was a longer, twistier road available.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“A little bit of one story joins onto an idea from another, and hey presto, . . . not old tales but new ones. Nothing comes from nothing.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“I always thought storytelling was like juggling [...] You keep a lot of different tales in the air, and juggle them up and down, and if you're good you don't drop any.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Iff replied that the Plentimaw Fishes were what he called 'hunger artists' — 'Because when they are hungry they swallow stories through every mouth, and in their innards miracles occur; a little bit of one story joins on to an idea from another, and hey presto, when they spew the stories out they are not the old tales but new ones. Nothing comes from nothing, Thieflet; no story comes from nowhere; new stories are born from old — it is the new combinations that make them new.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“A figure of speech is a shifty thing; it can be twisted or it can be straight.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“All names mean something.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Peace broke out.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Hey you, long face,' shouted an elderly gent who must have been at least seventy years old, but who was dancing through the flooded, rainy streets, waving a rolled umbrella like a sword. 'Don't you sing those Tragedy Songs round here.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“If you want pay, then just be gay.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“They drove past buses that dripped people the way a sponge drips water, and arrived at a thick forest of human beings, a crowd of people sprouting in all directions like leaves on jungle trees.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“The black ice of that dark fortress received the sunlight like a mortal wound.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Khattam-Shud,' he Said slowly 'is the arch-enemy of all stories, even of language itself. He is the prince of silence and the foe of speech. And because everything ends, because dreams ens, stories end, life ends, at the finish of everything we use his name. 'It is finished,' we tell one another, 'it's over, Khattam-Shud; the end.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Africa, have you seen it? No? Then is it truly there?...And the past, did it happen? And the future, will it come? Believe in your own eyes and you'll get into a lot of trouble'".”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“But but but what is the point of giving persons Freedom of Speech,’ declaimed Butt the Hoopoe, ‘if you then say they must not utilize same? And is not the Power of Speech the greatest Power of all? Then surely it must be exercised to the full?”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“They are the Eggheads. He is the Walrus.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“the real world was full of magic, so magical worlds could easily be real.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“Happy endings must come at the end of something,' the Walrus pointed out. 'If they happen in the middle of a story, or an adventure, or the like, all they do is cheer things up for a while.
'That'll do,' said Haroun.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“And because the stories were held here in fluid form, they retained the ability to change, to become new versions of themselves, to join up with other stories and so become yet other stories; so that unlike a library of books, the Ocean of the Streams of Story was much more than a storeroom of yarns. It was not dead but alive.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“In these parts,’ rejoined blue-bearded Iff, ‘I am having my time wasted by a Disconnector Thief who will not trust in what he can’t see. How much have you seen, eh, Thieflet? Africa, have you seen it? No? Then is it truly there? And submarines? Huh? Also hailstones, baseballs, pagodas? Goldmines? Kangaroos, Mount Fujiyama, the North Pole? And the past, did it happen? And the future, will it come? Believe in your own eyes and you’ll get into a lot of trouble, hot water, a mess.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories

“And in the depths of the city, beyond an old zone of ruined buildings that looked like broken hearts, there lived a happy young fellow by the name of Haroun, the only child of the storyteller Rashid Khalifa, whose cheerfulness was famous throughout that unhappy metropolis, and whose never-ending stream of tall, short and winding tales had earned him not one but two nicknames. To his admirers he was Rashid the Ocean of Notions, as stuffed with cheery stories as the sea was full of glumfish; but to his jealous rivals he was the Shah of Blah. To his wife, Soraya, Rashid was for many years as loving a husband as anyone could wish for, and during these years Haroun grew up in a home in which, instead of misery and frowns, he had his father’s ready laughter and his mother’s sweet voice raised in song. Then something went wrong. (Maybe the sadness of the city finally crept in through their windows.) The day Soraya stopped singing, in the middle of a line, as if someone had thrown a switch, Haroun guessed there was trouble brewing. But he never suspected how much.”
― Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories