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“Nothing is over yet, she told herself. The cat's still inside.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, The Singer's Gun

“In the words of the poet, my heart was in the east with you, but my body was out west.”
― André Aciman, Enigma Variations

“How wide the gulf between Henry as he was and Henry as Helen thought he ought to be! And she herself—hovering as usual between the two, now accepting men as they are, now yearning with her sister for Truth. Love and Truth—their warfare seems eternal. Perhaps the whole visible world rests on it, and if they were one, life itself, like the spirits when Prospero was reconciled to his brother, might vanish into air, into thin air.”
― E.M. Forster, Howards End

“The notes weren't played," he went on, "They were poured from a Grecian urn.”
― Marisha Pessl, Night Film

“Pünd remembered their first case together when Fraser had failed to notice that his travelling companion, on the three-fifty train from Paddington, was actually dead.”
― Anthony Horowitz, Magpie Murders

“I had meant to take her to my favorite pastry shop after dinner. I'd known happiness there once, or maybe not happiness, but the vision of it. I wanted to see whether the place had changed at all, or whether I had changed, or whether, just by sitting with her I could make up for old loves I'd gotten so close to but had never been bold enough to seize. Always got so very close, and always turned my back when the time came. Manfred and I had dessert here so many times, especially after the movies, and before Manfred, Maud and I, because it was so hot on summer nights that we'd stop to drink fizzy lemonades here, night after night, happy to be together drinking nothing stronger. And Chloe, of course, on those cold afternoons on Rivington Street so many years ago. My life, my real life, had not even happened yet, and all of this was rehearsal still. Tonight, I thought, relishing Joyce's words and feeling exquisitely sorry for myself, the time has come for me to set out on my journey westward. Then I thought of Saint Augustine's words: "Sero te amavi! Late have I loved you!”
― André Aciman, Enigma Variations

“Something had shifted between us, faintly, but the change was almost palpable. Our friendship had sat lightly between us, an ephemeral thing, without weight or gravity. Once, in the Boboli Gardens, under the shadow of a cypress tree on an achingly beautiful October afternoon, he had kissed me, a solemnly sweet and respectful kiss. But weeks had passed and we had not spoken of it. I had attributed it to the sunlight, shimmering gold like Danaë's shower, and had pressed it into the scrapbook of memory, to be taken out and admired now and then, but not to be dwelled upon too seriously. Perhaps I had been mistaken.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Sanctuary

“Detective Carr sits in his chair. In a way I think it would be terrible to live in LA devoid of aspirations. How would you do it? How would you put up with the traffic and the monotony of the sun, the way people use the word hella and lie so freely? How could you stand it here if you weren't striving for something better? Oh that's right; he liked The Wolf of Wall Street. He aspires to take someone down like me, a serial killer. But he chose the wrong guy. I am done with all that. And I will not let my past dictate my future.”
― Caroline Kepnes, Hidden Bodies

“There it is," he'd say reverentially. "The box represents the mysterious threshold between reality and make believe.”
― Marisha Pessl, Night Film

“By the windmills of Babyland he sat down and wept.”
― Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys

“So. I see where you're going—bus number 27 to a crossroads near Delphi. Look, I did not want, at any point, on any level, to kill my own father and sleep with my own mother. It's true that I wanted to sleep with Susan—and did so many times—and for a number of years thought of killing Gordon Macleod, but that is another part of the story. Not to put too fine a point on it, I think the Oedipus myth is precisely what it started off as: melodrama rather than psychology. In all my years of life I've never met anyone to whom it might apply.

You think I'm being naive? You wish to point out that human motivation is deviously buried, and hides its mysterious workings from those who blindly submit to it? Perhaps so. But even—especially—Oedipus didn't want to kill his father and sleep with his mother, did he? Oh yes he did! Oh no he didn't! Yes, let's just leave it as a pantomime exchange.”
― Julian Barnes, The Only Story

“I scroll through my own stories in my phone, the ones I write when I can't sleep, when I think about her, about what the fuck happened, when I make like Alvy Singer and try to correct it all with my imagination.”
― Caroline Kepnes, Hidden Bodies

“Earnshaw is quite a famous name, thanks to Miss Brontë . I did not realise there were Earnshaws in this country."

Mrs. Earnshaw gave a sharp nod. "Aye. And Heathcliffs and Eyres, as well. Proper little thieves, those Brontë girls.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor

“I don't think you truly realize what it means for the gates of Tyersall Park to be closed to you forever."

Nick laughed. "Jacqueline, you sound like some character out of a Trollope novel!”
― Kevin Kwan, China Rich Girlfriend

“It feels like all we've been doing day after day is partying with Shanghai's Gossip Girl crowd.”
― Kevin Kwan, China Rich Girlfriend

“Clement, usually a fluent speaker in any situation, could hear his voice assuming a pompous and affected tone, not unlike that which many actors use (wrongly in Clement's view) when playing Polonius.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Green Knight

“When Louise returned to the Aviary the others were playing the game of what character in fiction Peter Mir reminded them of.

'I think he's Mr Pickwick,' said Louise.

'Oh no! Never!' said Sefton. 'I think he's more like Prospero.'

'I think he's the Green Knight,' said Aleph. 'Come on, Moy, what do you think?'

'I think he's the Minotaur.'

'The Minotaur isn't a literary character, he's a mythical character,' Sefton objected.

'Oh really �� !'

'What does Clement think?' said Aleph.

'I think he's Mephistopheles,' said Clement.

'Surely not, he's so nice!' said Louise.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Green Knight

“She dreamt she saw the Polish Rider passing slowly by and he was weeping and she called out to him, but he turned his head away. She dreamt that she was drowning in the pool of tears.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Green Knight

“This then was love, to look and look until one exists no more, this was the love which was the same as death.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Unicorn

“It was like a comedy by Shakespeare. All the ends of the story were being bound up in a good way.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Unicorn

“She crossed her legs and kicked out her feet, clad in thick wool socks and boots big enough to house a little old lady.”
― Drew Magary, The Hike

“التلميح الناجع هو ذلك الذي يذكر أشياء في حدّ ذاتها عديمة القيمة ، وَ مع ذلك هي غير قابلة للتكذيب لأنّها حقيقيّة”
― Umberto Eco, Numero zero

“لا ينبغي أن يُقال إنّ الكنيسة راجعت مواقفها القديمة بشأن دوران الأرض ، بل إنّ البابا يعتذر لغاليليو”
― Umberto Eco, Numero zero

“Since I've moved here a Chinese takeaway on the main street has ominiously renamed itself from whatever it was before to the Golden Bowl, but other than that, the landscape is the last place on earth that might call Mizuko to mind.”
― Olivia Sudjic, Sympathy

“So,' I said, partly to Magda, partly to myself, 'Rema left Argentina with this An-a-to-le person.' I adopted the four-syllable pronunciation with confidence, feeling myself an Hercule Poirot: it was near the end of the story, the suspects were in the room.”
― Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric Disturbances

“Polly Partial handed me a piece of paper printed on all sides with confusing times and locations. It looked like a herd of numbers having a square dance. I would rather have reread her book [To Kill a Mockingbird] than Stain'd-by-the-Sea's confusing train schedule, but just barely.”
― Lemony Snicket

“Suzuki Todry sits down next to him
[an allusion to this?
Now Jenny Diver, ho, ho, yeah, Sukey Tawdry
Ooh, Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown
Oh, the line forms on the right, babe
Now that Macky's back in town
�� Bertolt Brecht, “Mack the Knife,�� 1928]”
― Malka Ann Older, Infomocracy

“They sold the furniture. There is nothing to sit upon and no table to set, so it is the kitchen for you, my girl. Pretend you are at Wuthering Heights. Everyone there ate in the kitchen.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor

“Brisbane, if you wish to go about looking like Heathcliff that is your affair.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor

“Why so sad?" Zach queries in fairy-tale tones. "Rachel?"

"O my brother Ivanushka," she recites. "A heavy stone is round my throat, silken grass grows through my fingers, yellow sand lies on my breast."

"That's perishing gloomy," Zach remarks.

"It ends happily though. Gracious! Everything sounds depressing this morning," adds Rachel. "There's a teacher at my school, she's very young, but she goes, Gracious! Just like a dowager. Makes me laugh. Except this morning. I can't help it. I am too depressed. I hate those voices so much. In the Gardens."

"Stop listening," Zach scolds and put his hands in her hair��silken grass grows through his fingers.”
― Emma Richler, Be My Wolff