Top 500 Erin Morgenstern Quotes (2026 Update)
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301. “It doesn’t whisper verses or stories around his tongue and into his head, thankfully, but it tastes older than stories. It tastes like myth.”

— Erin Morgenstern

302. “It bothers him most at times like this, in the bottom of the brandy bottle and the quiet of the night.”

— Erin Morgenstern

303. “I don’t always write in order, so composing multi-book stories could get complicated.”

— Erin Morgenstern

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304. “On this evening, Mme. Padva wears a dress of black silk, hand embroidered with intricate patterns of cherry blossoms, something like a kimono reincarnated as a gown. Her silver hair is piled atop her head and held in place with a small jeweled black cage. A choker of perfectly cut scarlet rubies circles her neck, putting forth a vague impression of her throat having been slit. The overall effect is slightly morbid and incredibly elegant.”

— Erin Morgenstern

305. “Each door will lead to a Harbor on the Starless Sea, if someone dares to open it.”

— Erin Morgenstern

306. “Only a single cat notices them in this moment and though the cat recognizes this mistake for what it is, it does not interfere. It is not the way of cats to interfere with fate.”

— Erin Morgenstern

307. “The painter spends her time in solitude and contemplation categorizing losses and regrets trying to determine if there was ever anything she could have done to prevent any of them or if they simply passed through her life and out again like waves upon a shore.”

— Erin Morgenstern

308. “Do you know why I gave my daughter permission to marry your father? Because she would have run off with him regardless. Follow your dreams, Bailey,” she says. “Be they Harvard or something else entirely. No matter what that father of yours says, or how loudly he might say it. He forgets that he was someone’s dream once, himself.”

— Erin Morgenstern

309. “I thought a circus environment would be an interesting venue to explore, where you didn’t just have one tent with three rings and a show going on but where you could explore different things in different tents.”

— Erin Morgenstern

310. “Most cats will do anything if you ask them nicely.”

— Erin Morgenstern

311. “Once they were librarians, but that is a subject they will only discuss if heavily intoxicated.”

— Erin Morgenstern

312. “My train was late that day. the day I saw you drop your notebook. Had it been on schedule we never would have met. Maybe we were never meant to.”

— Erin Morgenstern

313. “Fates Foretold and Darkest Desires Disclosed.”

— Erin Morgenstern

314. “When the beaded curtain parts with a sound like rain, it is Marco who enters the fortune-teller’s chamber, and Isobel immediately flips her veil from her face, the impossibly thin black silk floating back over her head like mist.”

— Erin Morgenstern

315. “She wears her worry like a coat she never takes off.”

— Erin Morgenstern

316. “She tries to think the way she imagines Marco.”

— Erin Morgenstern

317. “I know, interference is one of the very few things that is apparently against the rules. I do not intend to interfere, I intend to learn his systems so I can stop having to constantly manage so much of the circus.”

— Erin Morgenstern

318. “He believes in books, he thinks as he leaves the room. That much he knows for sure.”

— Erin Morgenstern

319. “It’s lovely, the way wishes are added to it, by lighting candles with ones that are already lit and adding them to the branches. New wishes ignited by old wishes.”

— Erin Morgenstern

320. “They are gods with lost myths, writing themselves new ones.”

— Erin Morgenstern

321. “The stories of a place are not easily contained.”

— Erin Morgenstern

322. “Do me a favor and marry someone who will take decent care of the sheep.”

— Erin Morgenstern

323. “He pulls the girl close to keep her warm. He kisses her shoulder, pretending he will have her for a lifetime when in truth they have only minutes left together.”

— Erin Morgenstern

324. “He can’t even think how to describe it. It’s like an art museum and an overflowing library were relocated into a subway system.”

— Erin Morgenstern

325. “Zachary peels and eats a mandarin orange in small segments of sunshine as he reads.”

— Erin Morgenstern

326. “As he watches her in the flickering light, it strikes Bailey suddenly that she is a fair deal older than she appears, and that the same is likely true of Marco. It is like realizing someone in a photograph is no longer the same age as they were when it was taken, and they seem farther away because of it.”

— Erin Morgenstern

327. “I knew that, and still it surprised me. How long I was willing to wait for something that was only a possibility. I always thought it was just a matter of time, but I was wrong.”

— Erin Morgenstern

328. “Everyone spends nights on the floor of their closet during grad school.”

— Erin Morgenstern

329. “How is it better?” Celia asks. “How is anything better than anything else here? How is one tent comparable to another? How can any of this possibly be judged?” “That is not your concern.” “How can I excel at a game when you refuse to tell me the rules?”

— Erin Morgenstern

330. “Thank you for seeing me when other people looked through me like I was a ghost.”

— Erin Morgenstern

331. “I have seen a great many things that I might once have considered impossible, or unbelievable. I find I no longer have clearly defined parameters for such matters. I choose to do my work to the best of my own abilities, and leave others to their own.”

— Erin Morgenstern

332. “He thought he would have figured out what he believes before it all came to an end but he has not.”

— Erin Morgenstern

333. “It is a modest flat with basic furnishings, so similar to his former rooms that he finds it difficult to feel anything resembling homesickness, save for the library, though he still possesses an impressive number of books.”

— Erin Morgenstern

334. “Each of us has our own path, Mr Rawlins. Symbols are for interpretation, not definition.”

— Erin Morgenstern

335. “We cannot feel the bars unless we push against them.”

— Erin Morgenstern

336. “Reading a novel, he supposes, is like playing a game where all the choices have been made for you ahead of time by someone who is much better at this particular game.”

— Erin Morgenstern

337. “Perhaps she herself is a page that was torn from a story and folded into a star and thrown in the shadows to be forgotten.”

— Erin Morgenstern

338. “How are you managing to keep everyone from aging?” Celia asks after a while. “Very carefully,” Marco answers. “And they are aging, albeit extremely slowly. How are you moving the circus?” “On a train.” “A train?” Marco asks, incredulous. “The entire circus moved by a single train?” “It’s a large train,” Celia says. “And it’s magic,” she adds, making Marco laugh. “I confess, Miss Bowen, you are not what I had expected.” “I assure you that feeling is mutual.”

— Erin Morgenstern

339. “Far beneath the surface of the earth, hidden from the sun and the moon, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. Stories written in books and sealed in jars and painted on walls.”

— Erin Morgenstern

340. “The chocolates are shaped like mice, with almond ears and licorice tails.”

— Erin Morgenstern

341. “It’s nothing I can clearly see as good or bad, but it is... intense.” Isobel pushes the cards around a bit, Le Bateleur and La Papessa surrounded by fire-tinged wands and watery cups. The crackle of the fire next to them mingles with the rain pattering against the windows. “It almost contradicts itself,” she says after a moment. “It’s as if there is love and loss at the same time, together in a kind of beautiful pain.”

— Erin Morgenstern

342. “He keeps notebooks full of symbols and glyphs, working through his old notes and finding new elements to consider. He carries smaller volumes with him at all times, transcribing them into larger ones once they are filled.”

— Erin Morgenstern

343. “Herr Thiessen is always pleased when the circus arrives in his native Germany, but this time he is particularly delighted that it has arrived quite near Munich, so there is no need for him to secure rooms in another city.”

— Erin Morgenstern

344. “Go away,” his sister says. “I’m going to the circus, if you would care to join me,” Bailey says, his voice dull. He already knows what her answer will be. “No,” she says, as predictable as the dinnertime silence. “How childish,” she adds, shooting him a disdainful glare. Bailey leaves without another word, letting the wind slam the front door behind him. The.”

— Erin Morgenstern

345. “They seem kind of badass, in a nerdy way.”

— Erin Morgenstern

346. “Once he has kicked off his boots and peeled off his winter layers, Zachary takes out the book. He turns it over in his hands and then puts it down on his desk. It doesn’t look like anything special, like it contains an entire world, though the same could be said of any book.”

— Erin Morgenstern

347. “They seek each other out, these people of such specific like mind. They tell of how they found the circus, how those first few steps were like magic.”

— Erin Morgenstern

348. “Do you sometimes feel like you are dreaming, all the time?”

— Erin Morgenstern

349. “Secrets have power. And that power diminishes when they are shared, so they are best kept and kept well. Sharing secrets, real secrets, important ones, with even one other person, will change them. Writing them down is worse, because who can tell how many eyes might see them inscribed on paper, no matter how careful you might be with it. So it’s really best to keep your secrets when you have them, for their own good, as well as yours.”

— Erin Morgenstern

350. “I speak languages with more ease than I read or write them, she explains. It is something in the feel of the sounds. I could attempt to put them on paper but I am sure the result would be appalling.”

— Erin Morgenstern