Top 500 Erin Morgenstern Quotes (2026 Update)
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301. “Even the ground beneath his feet feels unsatisfying to his boots.”

— Erin Morgenstern

302. “Endings are what give stories meaning.”

— Erin Morgenstern

303. “Whatever you wish to pay for a glimpse of your future,” the fortune-teller says. Bailey stops to consider this for a moment. It is strange, but fair.”

— Erin Morgenstern

304. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

306. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

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

— Erin Morgenstern

309. “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

310. “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

311. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

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

— Erin Morgenstern

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

— Erin Morgenstern

315. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

317. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

319. “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

320. “Fates Foretold and Darkest Desires Disclosed.”

— Erin Morgenstern

321. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

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

— Erin Morgenstern

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

— Erin Morgenstern

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

— Erin Morgenstern

326. “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

327. “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

328. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

330. “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

331. “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

332. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

334. “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

335. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

337. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

339. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

341. “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

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

— Erin Morgenstern

343. “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

344. “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

345. “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

346. “Is it the way it is in the book? He aches to know but he also suspects real places are never properly captured in words. There is always more.”

— Erin Morgenstern

347. “He wonders if he is losing his mind and then decides that if he is able to wonder about it he probably isn’t, which isn’t particularly comforting.”

— Erin Morgenstern

348. “It is a flowing waterfall of alchemical and astrological symbols, ancient marks for planets and elements all emblazoned in black ink upon her fair skin.”

— Erin Morgenstern

349. “The pirate was placed here for numerous acts of a piratey nature considered criminal enough for punishment by those non-pirates who decide such things.”

— Erin Morgenstern

350. “A language you cannot speak yourself is not necessarily a god-awful mess,” Celia says, transcribing a line of symbols into her notebook.”

— Erin Morgenstern