Gormenghast

“Gormenghast. 

Withdrawn and ruinous it broods in umbra: 

the immemorial masonry: 

the towers, the tracts. Is all corroding? 

No. Through an avenue of spires a zephyr floats; a bird whistles; 

a freshet beats away from a choked river. 

Deep in a fist of stone, a doll's hand wriggles, 

warm rebellious on the frozen palm. 

A shadow shifts its length. A spider stirs... 

And darkness winds between the characters.

- Gormenghast” 

~ Mervyn Peake

Roz to Amelia (the house ghost)

“Roz to Amelia (the house ghost): 

How considerate of you, after trying to kill me, 

to see that I don't catch a cold.” 

~ Nora Roberts, Black Rose

My Dear Fellow

“My dear fellow, " Said Albert, turning to Franz " here is an admirable adventure; 

we will fill our carriage with pistols, blunderbusses, and double-barreled shotguns. 

Luigi Vampa comes to take us, and we take him - 

we bring him back to Rome, and present him to his holiness the Pope, 

who asks how he can repay so great a service; 

Then we merely ask for a carriage and a pair of horses, 

and we will see the Carnival in the carriage, 

and doubtless, the Roman people will crown us at the capitol, 

and proclaim us, like Curtius and the veiled Horatius, 

the preservers of there country." 

Whilst Albert proposed this scheme, 

Signor Pastrini's face assumed an expression impossible to describe.” 

~ Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

Nothing of Importance

“Nothing of importance happened today.” 

~ King George III

You Know, Watson

“You know, Watson, I don't mind confessing to you 

that I have always had an idea 

that I would have made a highly efficient criminal. 

--Sherlock Holmes” 

~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

It Was Testimony

“It was testimony to the romantic speculation he inspired 

that there were whispers about him 

from those who had found little 

that it was necessary to whisper about in this world.” 

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Classicism is Health

“Classicism is health, romanticisim is sickness.” 

~ Von Goethe Johann Wolfgang

Persons Attempting to Find a Motive

“Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; 

persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; 

persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.” 

~ Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

They [Narnia] Are, Perhaps

“They [Narnia] are, perhaps, the greatest classics 

of children’s literature of the twentieth century.” 

~ Douglas Gresham

There is A Taint of Death

“There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies - 

which is exactly what I hate and detest in the world - 

what I want to forget.” 

~ Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

And in That Fraction of A Second

“And in that fraction of a second before anything actually happened, 

Santino Corleone knew he was a dead man.” 

~ Mario Puzo, The Godfather

It's Only the Sea

“It’s only the sea,’ said Moomintroll. 

‘Every wave that dies on the beach sings a little song to a shell. 

But you mustn’t go inside because it’s a labyrinth 

and you may never come out again.” 

~ Tove Jansson, Comet in Moominland

I Have Always Thought

“I have always thought that a wild animal never looks so well 

as when some obstacle of pronounced durability is between us. 

A personal experience has intensified rather than diminished that idea.” 

~ Bram Stoker, Dracula

There Was A Dull Pang of Regret

“There was a dull pang of regret because it was not the kiss of love which had inflamed her, because it was not love which had held this cup of life to her lips.” 

~ Kate Chopin, The Awakening

He Thought of the Number of Girls

“He thought of the number of girls and women she had seen marry, 

how many homes with children in them she had seen grow up around her, 

how she had contentedly pursued her own lone quite path-for him.

~ Stephen speaking of Rachael” 

~ Charles Dickens, Hard Times

Yea, And If Some God Shall Wreck Me

“Yea, and if some god shall wreck me in the wine-dark deep,

even so I will endure…

For already have I suffered full much,

and much have I toiled in perils of waves and war.

Let this be added to the tale of those.” 

~ Homer, The Odyssey

I'm Going to Make Him an Offer

“I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.” 

~ Marlon Brando

Stay Gold

“Stay gold Ponyboy,” 

~ S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders

Oh! That Look of Love!

“Oh! that look of love!" continued he, between his teeth, 

as he bolted himself into his own private room. 

"And that cursed lie; which showed some terrible shame in the background, 

to be kept from the light in which I thought she lived perpetually! 

Oh, Margaret, Margaret! Mother, how you have tortured me! 

Oh! Margaret, could you not have loved me? 

I am but uncouth and hard, 

but I would never have led you into any falsehood for me.” 

~ Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South

I Am Very Proud, Revengeful, Ambitious

“I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, 

with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, 

imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in.” 

~ William Shakespeare