Rather than stay behind to languish,
I will come and overtake you—
Tie at each turn of your road
A guide-knot, my lord!

The Man'yōshū, 28 ~ The Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai translation

Like the hidden stream
trickling beneath the trees
down the autumn mountainside,
so does my love increase
more than yours, my Lord.

The Man'yōshū ii.92, Translated by I.H.Levy

Of Love

He wills and loves right
who wills and loves naught:
Who loves what he wills,
loves not what he ought.

The Cherubinic Wanderer, II.60 ~ Angelus Silesius, translated by J. E. Crawford Flitch

When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.

~ Lord Falkland

Its my ambition to say in ten sentences what anyone else says in a whole book.

~ Nietzsche

Attolia reached to pull from its fabric padding the knife she carried along her ribs, but it was gone. Gone as well were the ceremonial knife from her belt and even the tiny blade hidden in the twists of her hair.
She looked at Eugenides to see his eyes open and his hand holding all three knives, their blades spread in a fan. He tossed them one at a time, into the air, catching each by the blade as it came down and tossing it up again, one-handed, then holding them out, handles first, to the queen. She hesitated, expecting him to pull them back, but he didn't move.
"Have all three," he said.
When she'd taken them, he pointed to a spot just below his heart.
"An upward stroke here," he said, "would be most efficient, but almost anywhere would do the job. You can push me into the water." he said. "I don't know if I can swim with one hand or not."
Attolia waited, sensing a trap. The moon disappeared behind a cloud. Eugenides was only a dark form against the darker water behind him. "Before you make your decision," he said, "I want you to know that I love you."
Attolia laughed. Eugenides flushed in the dark.
"I have been surrounded by liars all my life and never heard one lie like you," said Attolia, smiling.
"It's the truth." Eugenides shrugged.

The Queen of Attolia ~ Megan Whalen Turner

The Thief leaned closer to the queen to speak almost into her ear. "From shadow queen to puppet queen in one rule," he whispered. "That's very impressive. When he rules your country and he tells you he loves you, I hope you believe him."

The Queen of Attolia ~ Megan Whalen Turner

He shook his head, perhaps in self-contempt, and shrugged. "I dream about her at night."
Eddis looked down at him and said dryly, "We have heard you screaming."

The Queen of Attolia ~ Megan Whalen Turner

"What would I have done," Eddis repeated in a low voice, more anguished than her shouting, "what would I have done if she'd caught you and cut you to pieces and sent the pieces back to me?"
"Buried them," said Eugenides.

The Queen of Attolia ~ Megan Whalen Turner

Her words surprised Gen. "You aren't the boy hero any more," she said.
"Was I ever?" he asked, raising one eyebrow.
She smiled, wondering again where he had picked up that particular facial expression. "Oh, certainly you were the golden boy," she said. "You kept the entire population amused. And since you brought Sounis to his knees, you've been the darling of the court as well."
"The magus said something along those lines. All that glory, and I missed it," Eugenides said mournfully.

The Queen of Attolia ~ Megan Whalen Turner

Don't you think that humans
are just animals, who are full of hopes?
Whether it's an animal or a plant,
they know who they are once they are born.
Only humans, keep hoping and live to this day like that.

Asou Haruto ~ One Litre of Tears

I'll will... become your first fan for you.

Riko ~ Buzzer Beat

ARCIMBOLDO'S GLASS FOR THE GODS was written in golden letters over the door, and right beside it was a sign: MAGIC MIRRORS FOR GOOD AND WICKED STEPMOTHERS, FOR BEAUTIFUL AND UGLY WITCHES, AND EVERY SORT OF HONEST PURPOSE.

The Water Mirror, The Dark Reflections Trilogy ~ Kal Meyer

I can clean the dirt from this place even if I can't clean you from your wickedness, young man.

Sophie, Howl's Moving Castle ~ Diana Wynne Jones

Fuji Minami: Well, wouldn't it be great if we could work together even ten years from now?
In ten years, you'll become some kind of a hot shot, and we'll work overtime together.
Then we'll laugh and talk about how hopeless you were when you first came here.
Wouldn't that be awesomely fun?
Ishida Yuya: There's a huge difference...
Fuji Minami: Eh?
Ishida Yuya: Actually, I cannot even think of ten minutes from now,
let alone ten years into the future.
Me in ten years, something that much in the future,
there's only one single person in the entire world who is thinking of such a thing.
Just one.
Only you, Fujii-san.

Episode 3 ~ Sapuri

The Ecclesiast

"Worse than the sunflower," she had said.
But the new dimension of truth had only recently
Burst in on us. Now it was to be condemned.
And in vagrant shadow her mothball truth is eaten.
In cool, like-it-or-not shadow the humdrum is consumed.
Tired housewives begat it some decades ago,
A small piece of truth that is it was honey to the lips
Was also millions of miles from filling the place reserved for it.
You see how honey crumbles your universe
Which seems like an institution – how many walls?

Then everything, in her belief, was to be submerged
And soon. There was no life you could live out to its end
And no attitude which, in the end, would save you.
The monkish and the frivolous alike were to be trapped
in death's capacious claw
But listen while I tell you about the wallpaper –
There was a key to everything in that oak forest
But a sad one. Ever since childhood there
Has been this special meaning to everything.
You smile at your friend's joke, but only later, through tears.

For the shoe pinches, even though it fits perfectly.
Apples were made to be gathered, also the whole host of the
world’s ailments and troubles.
There is no time like the present for giving in to this temptation.
Once the harvest is in and the animals put away for the winter
To stand at the uncomprehending window cultivating the desert
With salt tears which will never do anyone any good.
My dearest I am as a galleon on salt billows.
Perfume my head with forgetting all around me.

For some day these projects will return.
The funereal voyage over ice-strewn seas is ended.
You wake up forgetting. Already
Daylight shakes you in the yard.
The hands remain empty. They are constructing an osier basket
Just now, and across the sunlight darkness is taking root anew
In intense activity. You shall never have seen it just this way
And that is to be your one reward.

Fine vapors escape from whatever is doing the living.
The night is cold and delicate and full of angels
Pounding down the living. The factories are all lit up,
The chime goes unheard.
We are together at last, though far apart.

~ John Ashbery

Lyra’s Oxford and Will’s would lie over each other again, like transparent images on two sheets of film being moved close and closer until they merged; although they would never truly touch.

The Amber Spyglass, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

At the word alone, Will felt a great wave of rage and despair moving outwards from a place deep within him, as if his mind were and ocean that some profound convulsion had disturbed.
All his life he’d been alone, and now he must be alone again, and this infinitely precious blessing that had come to him must be taken away almost at once.
He felt the wave build higher and steeper to darken the sky, he felt the crest tremble and begin to spill, he felt the great mass crashing down with the whole weight of the ocean behind it against the iron-bound coast of what had to be.
And he found himself gasping and shaking and crying aloud with more anger and pain than he had ever felt in his life, and he found Lyra just as helpless in his arms.
But as the wave expended its force and the waters withdrew, the bleak rocks remained; there was no arguing with fate; neither his despair nor Lyra’s had moved them a single inch.

The Amber Spyglass, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

“D’you think I could bear that I could bear that, Lyra?” he said.
“D’you think I could live happily watching you get sick and ill and fade away and then die, while I was getting stronger and more grown-up day by day?
Ten years… That’s nothing. It’d pass in a flash. We’d be in our twenties. It’s not that far ahead.
Think of that, Lyra, you and me grown up, just preparing to do all the things we want to do – and then… it all comes to an end.
Do you think I could bear to live on after you died?
Oh, Lyra, I’d follow you down to the world of the dead without thinking twice about it, just like you followed Roger; and that would be two lives gone for nothing, my life wasted like yours.
No, we should spend our whole lifetimes together, good long busy lives, and if we can’t spend them together, we… we’ll have to spend them apart.”

Will, The Amber Spyglass, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

Will said to his father’s ghost, “You said I was a warrior. You told me that was my nature, and I shouldn’t argue with it. Father, you were wrong. I fought because I had to. I can’t choose my nature, but I can choose what I do. And I will choose, because now I’m free.”

His father’s smile was full of pride and tenderness. “Well done, my boy. Well done indeed,” he said.

The Amber Spyglass, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

I told him I was going to betray you, and betray Lyra, and he believed me because I was corrupt and full of wickedness; he looked so deep I felt sure he’d see the truth.
But I lied too well, I was lying with every nerve and fibre and everything I’d ever done…
I wanted him to find no good in me, and he didn’t. There is none.
But I love Lyra. Where did this love come from?
I don’t know; it came to me like a thief in the night, and now I love her so much my heart is bursting with it.
All I could hope was that my crimes were so monstrous that the love was no bigger than a mustard-seed in the shadow of them, and I wished I’d committed even greater ones to hide it more deeply still…
But the mustard-seed had taken root and was growing, and the little green shoot was splitting my heart wide open, and I was afraid he’d see…

Marisa Coulter, The Amber Spyglass, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

“My daughter!” cried Lord Asriel, exulting.
“Isn’t it something to bring a child like that into the world?
You’d think it was enough to go alone to the kind of the armoured bears and trick his kingdom out of his paws – but to go down into the world of the dead and calmly let them all out – !
And that boy; I want to meet that boy; I want to shake his head.
Did we know what we were talking about when we started this rebellion? No.
But did they know – the Authority and his Regent, this Metatron – did they know what they were taking on when my daughter got involved?”

The Amber Spyglass, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

I’m troubled, and I have never been troubled before, never in doubt. Now I am full of doubt. Doubt is a human thing, not a bear thing. If I am becoming human, something’s wrong, something’s bad. And I’ve made it worse.

Iorek Byrnison, The Amber Spyglass, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

She sounded so kindly, and there was such sad wisdom in her eyes, that Will’s mistrust deepened. He felt that every word she said was a lie, every action concealed a threat, and every smile was a mask of deceit. Well he would have to deceive her in turn: he’d have to make her think he was harmless. But he had deceived every teacher and every police officer and every social worker and every neighbor who had ever taken an interest in him and his home; he’d been preparing for this all his life.

Right, he thought. I can deal with you.

The Amber Spyglass, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

When she saw how they worked, not on their own but two by two, working their trunks together to tie a knot, she realized how astonished they’d been by her hands, because of course she could tie knots on her own.
At first she felt that this gave her an advantage – she needed no one else; and then she realized how it cut her off from the others.
Perhaps all human beings were like that.

The Amber Spyglass, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

The Promise

If you need a friend,
don't look to a stranger,
You know in the end,
I'll always be there.

And when you're in doubt,
and when you're in danger,
Take a look all around,
and I'll be there.

I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say. (I promise)
I know they don't sound the way I planned them to be. (I promise)
But if you wait around a while, I'll make you fall for me,
I promise, I promise you I will.

When your day is through,
and so is your temper,
You know what to do,
I'm gonna always be there.

Sometimes if I shout,
it's not what's intended.
These words just come out,
with no gripe to bear.

I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say. (I promise)
I know they don't sound the way I planned them to be. (I promise)
But if you wait around a while, I'll make you fall for me,
I promise, I promise you...

I'm sorry, but I'm just thinking of the right words to say. (I promise)
I know they don't sound the way I planned them to be. (I promise)
And if I had to walk the world, that make you fall for me,
I promise you, I promise you I will.

~ Anberlin

"What did he ever do that you needed to kill him?" he cried. "Tell me that, if you can!"

And she looked at the dead man. Then she looked back at Will and shook her head sadly.

"No, I can't explain," she said. "You're too young. It wouldn't make sense to you.
I loved him. That's all. That's enough."

The Subtle Knife, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

"There are two great powers," the man said, "and they've been fighting since time began.
Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other.
Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."

The Subtle Knife, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

"But why should I fight them? I've been fighting too much, I can't go on fighting, I want to-"
"Have you won your fights?"
Will was silent. Then he said, "Yes, I suppose."
"You fought for the knife?"
"Yes, but-"
"Then you're a warrior. That's what you are. Argue with anything else, but don't argue with your own nature."
Will knew that the man was speaking the truth. But it wasn't a welcome truth. It was heavy and painful.

The Subtle Knife, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

Survival first, morals later.

Hester, The Subtle Knife, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

Lee was too cool by nature to rage at fate; his manner was to raise an eyebrow and greet it laconically.

The Subtle Knife, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

"Seems to me-" Lee said, feeling for the words- "seems to me that the place you fight cruelty is where you find it, and the place you give help is where you see it needed."

The Subtle Knife, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

"He's strange," said Ruta Skadi. "He is the same kind as Lord Asriel.
Have you looked into his eyes?"

"To tell you the truth," said Serafina Pekkala, "I haven't dared."

The Subtle Knife, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

They both sat silent on the moss-covered rock, in the slant of sunlight through the old pines, and thought how many tiny chances had conspired to bring them to this place.

The Subtle Knife, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

It was much harder for Lyra now than it had been even in the Arctic, on the way to Bolvangar, for then she'd had the gyptians and Iorek Byrnison with her, and even if the tundra was full of danger, you knew the danger when you saw it. Here, in the city that was both hers and not hers, danger could look friendly, and treachery smiled and smelt sweet.

The Subtle Knife, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

Was there only one world after all, which spent it's time dreaming of others?

The Subtle Knife, His Dark Materials ~ Philip Pullman

Polonius: What do you read, my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.

Hamlet ~ William Shakespeare

Don't Go Far Off

Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

~ Pablo Neruda

I don't know whether I come from the devil or not! I don't know what I am!
I am to live to the end of the world, and I do not even know what I am!

Louis, Interview with the Vampire ~ Anne Rice

I needn't point out to you I have more wit to fare better in my little finger than you in your entire frame.

Louis, Interview with the Vampire ~ Anne Rice

You want me gone! You... You whining coward of a vampire who prowls the night killing alley cats and rats and staring for hours at candles as if they were people and standing in the rain like a zombie until your clothes are drenched and you smell like old wardrobe trunks in attics and have the look of a baffled idiot at the zoo.

Lestat, Interview with the Vampire ~ Anne Rice

You're dying, that's all; don't be a fool.

Lestat, Interview with the Vampire ~ Anne Rice

Stop looking at my buttons. Go out there into the trees. Rid yourself of all the human waste in your body, and don't fall so madly in love with the night that you lose your way!

Lestat, Interview with the Vampire ~ Anne Rice

I never laugh at death, no matter how often and regularly I am the cause of it.

Louis, Interview with the Vampire ~ Anne Rice

"Do you miss it?" he asked then in a small voice.
"Not really," said the vampire. "There are so many other things."

Interview with the Vampire ~ Anne Rice

People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil. I don't know why. No, I do indeed know why. Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.

Louis, Interview with the Vampire ~ Anne Rice

I lived like a man who wanted to die but who had no courage to do it himself.
I walked black streets and alleys alone; I passed out in cabarets.
I backed out of two duels more from apathy than cowardice and truly wished to be murdered.
And then I was attacked.
It might have been anyone - and my invitation was open to sailors, thieves, maniacs, anyone.
But it was a vampire.

Louis, Interview with the Vampire ~ Anne Rice

There is a simple answer to that. I don't believe I want to give simple answers. I think I want tell the real story.

Louis, Interview with the Vampire ~ Anne Rice

It is wonderful what tricks our dreams play us, and how conveniently we can imagine.

Mina Harker, Dracula ~ Bram Stoker

Doctor, you don't know what it is to doubt everything, even yourself. No, you don't; you couldn't with eyebrows like yours.

Johnathan Harker, Dracula ~ Bram Stoker

I suppose a cry does us all good at times - clears the air as other rain does.

Mina Harker, Dracula ~ Bram Stoker

'Maybe you would perhaps pity me the most of all.'
I was touched by the tenderness in his tone and asked why.
'Because I know!'

Dracula ~ Bram Stoker

Men and women are like ropes, drawn tight with strain that pulls us different ways. Then tears come; and, like the rain on the ropes, they brace up us, until perhaps the strain becomes too great, and we break.

Van Helsing, Dracula ~ Bram Stoker

It is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles; and yet when King Laugh come he make them all dance to the tune he play. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall - all dance together to the music that he make with that smileless mouth of him.

Van Helsing, Dracula ~ Bram Stoker

She makes a very beautiful corpse, sir. It's quite a privilege to attend on her. It's not too much to say that she will do credit to our establishment!

Dracula ~ Bram Stoker

Their eyes met instead of their lips; and so they parted.

Dracula ~ Bram Stoker

'Doctor, won't you be very good to me and let me have a little more sugar? I think it would be good for me.'
'And the flies?' I said.
'Yes! The flies like it, too, and I like the flies; therefore I like it.'

Dracula ~ Bram Stoker

I ain't afraid of dyin' not a bit; only I don't want to die if I can help it.

Mr. Swales, Dracula ~ Bram Stoker

Why can't they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save us all the trouble?

Lucy Westenra, Dracula ~ Bram Stoker

Even if you cry, it’s one day.
Even if you laugh, it’s one day.
Since that’s the case, let’s live that one day laughing.

~ Akanishi Jin [Cartoon KAT-TUN II You concert]

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

~ Robert Frost