Quotes from Anthony Doerr

We are Malouins first, say the people of Saint-Malo.

These numbers, they're more than numbers. Do you understand?" "But we are the good guys. Aren't we, Uncle?" "I hope so. I hope we are.

archaeologists have found the inscription ?????????? scratched on thousands of ancient Greek pots, given as gifts by older men to boys they found attractive. ??????????, ????? ? ????, "the boy is beautiful.

the air would get so heavy with moisture he imagined he could feel each bloated molecule as it toppled into his lungs.

Several do math on their fingers. Then they raise their hands as one. "Can we see it?" "No." "Not even open the first door?" "No." "Have you seen it?" "I have not." "So how do you know it's really there?" "You have to believe the story." "How much is it worth, Monsieur? Could

Only about one in fifteen great grey eggs hatch and make it to adulthood. Hatchlings get eaten by ravens, martens, black bears, and great horned owls; nestlings often starve. Because they require such extensive hunting grounds, great greys are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss: cattle trample meadows, decimating prey numbers; wildfires incinerate nesting areas; the owls eat rodents that have eaten poison, die in vehicle collisions, and fly into utility wires.

She can hear the bombers when they are three miles away. A mounting static. The hum inside a seashell.

Etienne," Marie-Laure whispers, "are you ever sorry that we came here? That I got dropped in your lap and you and Madame Manec had to look after me? Did you ever feel like I brought a curse into your life?" "Marie-Laure," he says without hesitation. He squeezes her hand with both of his. "You are the best thing that has ever come into my life.

Repository,'' he finally says, ''you know this word? A resting place. A text - a book - is a resting place for the memories of people who have lived before. A way for the memory to stay fixed after the soul has traveled on.

Todo dia, ela tira um tempo para se perder nos reinos da memória...

She'd been naked in her pool, floating on her back, when she realized that her life—two kids, a three-story Tudor, an Audi wagon—was not what she wanted.

Esa, se da cuenta Marie-Laure, es la base de su miedo, de todos los miedos. Que una luz cuyo resplandor no se puede detener brille sobre ti y le indique a la bala hacia dónde dirigirse.

To really touch something, is to love it.

There are comforts in knowing the boundaries of the place you live. Everyone here seems to behave like things are endless.

She clutches the sack. West, she thinks, this is all she knows, west where the sun goes down, west across the Propontis, and her mind sends up visions of the blessed island of Scheria, and of the bright oil and soft bread of Urbino, and of Aethon's city in the clouds, each paradise blurring into the last. It does exist, Aethon-the-fish told the wizard inside the whale. Otherwise what's it all been for?

Did you know," says Marie-Laure, "that the chance of being hit by lightning is one in one million? Dr. Geffard taught me that." "In one year or in one lifetime?" "I'm not sure." "You should have asked.

A little brown house sparrow swoops out of the rafters and lands on the tiles in front of her. Marie-Laure holds out an open palm. The sparrow tilts his head, considering. Then it flaps away. One month later she is blind.

They walk several more minutes in silence, Rex slowing with each step, and soon they are at the edge of Camp Five. Woodsmoke, a rumbling generator, the Chinese flag. The reek of the latrines. All around them the little hunched trees whisper. Zeno can see a darkness seize Rex, then slowly release him. "I know why those librarians read the old stories to you," Rex says. "Because if it's told well enough, for as long as the story lasts, you get to slip the trap.

The war drops its question mark. Memos are distributed. The collections must be protected. A small cadre of couriers has begun moving things to country estates. Locks and keys are in greater demand than ever.

A is ???? is alpha: the inverted head of an ox. ? is ???? is beta: based on the floor plan of a house. ? is ? ???? is omega, the mega O: a great whale's mouth opening to swallow all the letters before it.

It's as if the city has become a library of books in an unknown language, the houses great shelves of illegible volumes, the lamps all extinguished.

I am Aethon, a simple shepherd from Arkadia, and the tale I have to tell is so ludicrous, so incredible, that you'll never believe a word of it—and yet, it's true. For I, the one they called birdbrain and nincompoop—yes, I, dull-witted muttonheaded lamebrained Aethon—once traveled all the way to the edge of the earth and beyond…

and evening is settling over the hundred thousand rooftops and chimneys of Paris, and all the walls around her are dissolving, the ceilings too, the whole city is disintegrating into smoke, and at last sleep falls over her like a shadow.

The whole thing feels like a pool of water that I'm trying to hold in my hands.