City of Night Birds Quotes

“No matter how great a work of art is, it comes to an end. In fact, in order to be great, it must end. But life never comes to an end. When one thread is knotted, even when another is broken, it continues weaving together to an everlasting music, so that the whole of it can only be seen from the height of infinity.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“Only time has shown me the truth: we can choose the minor friends and the minor lovers, but we don’t have any choice in the matter of the people we truly love.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“Russia—not her politics, but her language, woodlands and meadows, rivers and lakes, centuries-old capitals, her poetry, her prayers, Tolstoy, Gogol, Bulgakov, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Akhmatova, Mayakovsky, Pasternak, the White Nights, summers and winters, families, dachas, and above everything else, her ballet—birthed us and gave us a reason for life. I loved this land, and my place in it was at the theater. And if some things weren’t as they should be, that was also the case in every other country.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“You know it's not true that men say "I love you," to deceive. Most people can't outright lie about it. If you don't love someone, it's very difficult to say I love you. And if you do love someone, it's just as painful to remain silent.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“WHO ARE THE PEOPLE WE truly love? I don’t think it’s people we like, but the ones we keep thinking about.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“All the beauty and tragedy of life can be found in the space between what could have been and what turns out to be.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“He who doesn’t take risks, doesn’t drink champagne.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“The greatest threat to the creative instinct is comfort. No painter picked up a brush after a scrumptious supper. No writer writes anything good while having a high and stable income. Instead, it's hunger, anxiety, sorry, poverty, illness, and loneliness that lead to art, because the impulse to create begins from the state of tension.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“In brief moments of true happiness, people are remarkably similar. It’s the rest of the time that reveals their differences.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“No matter how great a work of art is, it comes to an end. In fact, in order to be great, it must end. But life never comes to an end. When one thread is knotted, even when another is broken, it continues weaving together to an everlasting music so that the whole of it can only be seen from the height of infinity.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“In the afternoons, my happiness was whole, golden and miraculous, like an egg yolk inside its shell, basking in the warmth that will transform it into a baby bird.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“Trying to be okay is ninety-five percent of life”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds

“So I learned early on that the most painful thing in the world is uncertainty. Not knowing whom to trust. Not knowing who will stay. The only way to ensure that you don’t get left behind is for you to be the one to leave.”
― Juhea Kim, City of Night Birds