The Night Circus

"Stories have changed, my dear boy," the man in the grey suit says, his voice almost imperceptibly sad. "There are no more battles between good and evil, no monsters to slay, no maidens in need of rescue. Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something, in any case. There are no longer simple tales with quests and beasts and happy endings. The quests lack clarity of goal or path. The beasts take different forms and are difficult to recognize for what they are. And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise. Things keep going on, they overlap and blur, your story is part of your sister's story is part of many other stories, and there is no telling where any of them may lead. Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon, or a wolf and a scarlet-clad little girl. And is not the dragon the hero of his own story?"

~Erin Morgenstern (said by character Alexander) 

The Crucible

Proctor: (grasping her by the throat as though he would strangle her). Make your peace with it! Now Hell and Heaven grapple on our backs, and all our old pretense is ripped away- make your peace! (He throws her to the floor, where she sobs, "I cannot, I cannot..." And now, half to himself, staring, and turning to the open door) Peace. It is a providence, and no great change; we are only what we always were, but naked now. (He walks as though toward a great horror, facing the open sky.) Aye, naked! And the wind, God's icy wind, will blow!

(And she is over and over again sobbing, "I cannot, I cannot, I cannot," as)

The curtain falls

~Arthur Miller

Indian Education

Believe me, everything looks like a noose if you stare at it long enough. 

~Sherman Alexie 

Siddhartha

"Most people, Kamala, are like a falling leaf, which drifts and turns in the air, and sways, and zigzags to the ground. But others, just a few, are like stars; they travel a fixed route, no wind reaches them; their law and their route lie within themselves."

~Hermann Hesse (said by character Siddartha)

Siddhartha

He saw merchants doing business, princes leaving for the hunt, mourners lamenting their dead, whores offering their services, doctors busy with patients, priests determining the proper day to begin sowing, lovers in love, mothers nursing their children- and none of it was worth the trouble of a glance, it was all a lie, it all stank,it all stank of lies, it all gave the illusion of meaning and happiness and beauty, and it was all unacknowledged decay. The world had a bitter taste. Life was torment. 

~Hermann Hesse 

Digging

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests. 

I'll dig with it. 

~Seamus Heaney

Sever

And I wrap my arms around him, because I am human and selfish and breathing. I'm still alive and I don't know for how long, or what for. I shudder and sob, and the guilt and the hurt are so heavy, but not so much that it stops my heart from beating. 

~Lauren DeStefano