Quotes from Sara Gruen

She looks at her watch—a real one, with arms. Those digital ones came and went, thank God. When will people learn that just because you can make something doesn't mean you should?

Give orange give me eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you. —NIM CHIMPSKY, 1970s Gimme gimme more, gimme more, gimme gimme more. —BRITNEY SPEARS, 2007

When will people learn that just because you can make something doesn't mean you should?

off, but Osgood, the photographer, was already snoring softly. He was in the center seat, wedged between John Thigpen and

But there's nothing to be done about it. All I can do is put in time waiting for the inevitable, observing as the ghosts of my past rattle around my vacuous present. They crash and bang and make themselves at home, mostly because there's no competition. I've stopped fighting them. They're crashing and banging around in there now. Make yourselves at home, boys. Stay awhile. Oh, sorry—I see you already have. Damn ghosts.

But what else do I have to offer? Nothing happens to me anymore. That's the reality of getting old, and I guess that's really the crux of the matter. I'm not ready to be old yet. But I shouldn't complain, this being circus day and all.

Es imposible describir la ternura que he empezado a sentir por ellos: hienas, camellos y todos los demás. Hasta el oso polar, que veo tumbado sobre su costado, mordisqueando sus zarpas de doce centímetros con sus dientes de doce centímetros. El amor por estos animales me invade repentinamente, como un torrente, y se eleva dentro de mí, sólido como un obelisco y fluido como el agua.

I came home poorer by several hundred dollars and richer by more books than I could carry.

She had been warned away from it her entire life, for its depth came quickly, its coldness was fierce, and the Kelpie lay in wait.

But my darling was as frail as a bird. She died nine days later. After sixty-one years together, she simply clutched my hand and exhaled. Although

To say that I wished I wasn't there would be a ludicrous understatement, but I'd only ever had the illusion of choice: We have to do this, Hank had said. It's for Ellis. To refuse would have been an act of calculated cruelty. And so, because of my husband's war with his father and their insane obsession with a mythical monster, we'd crossed the Atlantic at the very same time a real madman, a real monster, was attempting to take over the world for his own reasons of ego and pride.

He's paragon schnitzophonic." "He's what?!" "Paragon schnitzophonic," repeats Uncle Al. "You mean paranoid schizophrenic?

Fragmentos de céu me espiam através das folhas, um mosaico azul e verde que se altera suavemente com o vento. Fixo a vista ali e me deixo perder o foco, olhando para além das folhas e dos galhos. Um esquilo salta pesadamente, a cauda bem empinada, cruzando meu campo de visão. Water for Elephants, p.22

Make yourselves at home, boys. Stay awhile. Oh, sorry—I see you already have. Damn ghosts.

Sometimes I think that if I had to choose between an ear of corn or making love to a woman, I'd choose the corn.

paraded around town in an elephant cage, an elephant who repeatedly pulled her stake and stole the lemonade

Ellis had slept through the entire thing. That, or he was dead, but I saw no reason to check. If he was dead, he'd still be dead in the morning.

For the rest of the night, all I could think about was how many heads had lain on those pillows before my own.

She blamed the lack of real flowers on both weather and the war, and instead put four or five pieces of coal in glass bowls, added water, salt, and ammonia, before finally pouring a mixture of violet and blue ink over them. It was a complete mystery to me how this alchemy would result in anything resembling flowers, but they were "blooming" within the hour.

I usually know what the crisis of the book is going to be, though I don't know how I'm going to get there. I try to make it bad enough that I don't know how I'm going to get out of it. And when I get there, I have to get out of it. I just get myself geared up, and I write every day and see what happens.

I'm glad nothing requires my intervention, because I'm trying hard to maintain my composure. This is the first time I've ever seen a woman naked and I don't think I'll ever be the same.

And you know what they say. Always carry a large flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and further, always carry a small snake.

If I had to choose between making love and corn on the cob, I'd pick corn on the cob.

his hat from his head and presses it to his chest. I walk a few dozen yards from the train, climb the grassy bank, and sit rubbing my