The Storyteller Of Casablanca Quotes
"It’s the best of both worlds and we’re hedging our bets."
"It was comforting reading the words of those familiar stories."
"I think it just makes her look like she’s surprised the whole time."
"You can’t let bullies get away with that sort of behaviour, as I have learned from my reading."
"I’ve never been one of those people who skips to the end of a book to find out what happens."
"The tears came back into my eyes at the thought of losing a part of my papa’s book that I had always taken such good care of, the only book I had left in the world."
"It’s a shame the globe was too big to bring with us. It probably would have come in handy now that we are world travellers."
"I didn’t mind his imperfect smile really, because the thing you noticed most was the way his eyes smiled too and so that broken tooth didn’t seem to matter at all."
"The first time we played, mine was ice cream."
"Love and courage are stronger than those things."
"Remember that when you wake in the night. The moon that shines on you here is a reminder that love is like the moon in those bowls of water – it is everywhere."
"It’s only when you let go of fear and grief, though, that you will find the freedom to be brave and to love fully."
"I love that idea of making a fresh start, of hope reawakening."
"Everything is interconnected. A tree may lose its leaves in wintertime but then, after a period of hibernation, there’s a rebirth in the spring as new life unfurls."
"You are the most precious things in the whole wide world."
"Morocco is a country bounded by a vast desert on one side, where Panzer tanks lurk like hyenas waiting for a kill, and a vast ocean on the other, where U-boats wait to prey on other ships like sharks. And we are caught in the middle, like little white mice."
"The woman he married is dead and gone. She’s been replaced by a hollowed-out shell of a wife, only able to find solace in the company of her baby daughter."
"The notes float on the evening air, chasing away the silence and the sadness, and I hope they fill Grace’s dreams with a tune from long ago."
"If you ask me, there’s been an awful lot of preparation for a so-called relaxed family holiday."
"I think it would be very interesting to be a cave dweller."
"The time we spent in the refugee camp has had a lasting effect on her."
"I’m not going to take my journal with me on the trip because... I won’t be able to write in it without her poking her nose in."
"I hope I sleep well tonight, although I’m feeling a mixture of excited and anxious about the trip."
"I looked out of the window and thought about the words I’d thrown into it."
"But if we leave out some of the important bits of the truth – or choose to ignore them – then surely we are living a lie? And that is no way to live at all, is it?"
"Once you have heard their stories, it is hard to see the world in the same way ever again."
"It doesn’t take much to seek them out, though. My wife volunteers at a project offering support to women and children who have fled their homes in other countries and become stranded in Morocco."
"I felt very glad then that there are still people in this world like Madame Bénatar and my maman who are kind and caring."
"It’s not only the thought of that ominous menace from so many years ago that’s unsettling me today."
"Day after day, he’d been out there alone and he’d paused to watch the sun coming up over the roofs and towers of this dirty city."
"But then Papa reassured her and I think he must have put his arms around her because her sobs became muffled."
"Don’t ever apologise for who you are. You know we love you and we’d be nothing without you."
"What it means to lose every landmark that has helped you find your way in this world?"
"I try not to flinch at the image of a body in pieces beneath a tree."
"Surely even a drop in the ocean is better than none at all, though?"
"The pastel pink and pale blue crayons have scarcely been touched, their points still neat, whereas the darker shades are worn to stubs."
"As Lord Peter Wimsey so wisely says in Gaudy Night, ‘The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.’"
"Little did we know, as we enjoyed our seaside holiday, just how important my schoolwork was about to become."
"Life will be like this all the time when we get to America – carefree days filled with pleasant views, ice creams, and Coca-Cola."
"The salty air and constant scouring of the wind had eaten away at the stones of the fortifications over the years, softening the edges a little, but they still looked good and solid."
"Sometimes the ones who look the plainest are the ones with hearts of gold."
"Words can inspire people, whether you are the President of America or the Dreamseller of Casablanca."
"Even tiny mosquitoes like me and Nina have the power to do something about it."
"A beautiful home, a luxurious lifestyle, a perfect-looking marriage. But hidden behind it is a hard, dead core."
"Hope is a great pick-me-up, even better than a glass of brandy."
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."
"The dreamseller’s stories have the knack of helping you to feel so much better about things that feel impossible."
"It's very strange to think that in 3 months' time I'll be living a completely different life."
"When the moon shines on one hundred bowls of water, every one of them is filled with moonlight."
"Quilting has always been a way to bring people together."
"It took a storyteller to come and open all our eyes to other possibilities."
"I remember the day Tom and I met... We didn't want the day to end."
"The dreamseller had sent a farewell message for me, to remind me of the words she'd said before."
"Life feels like a game of snakes and ladders for everyone right now."
"The war is also a bit like a snakes and ladders board."
"How can my heart hold the moonlight when it's been shattered into a thousand pieces?"
"The only trouble is, it doesn't feel that way at all to me at the moment."
"It is for us the living to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far nobly advanced."
"We are just two little white mice in this war between giants."
"A tiny bit less helpless knowing I’m playing a small part in Papa’s ‘unfinished work’."
"It is the same colour as your eyes, Khadar Ini. He was so proud of you."
"As I watch the moon climb higher, until it hangs directly above the minaret of the mosque, I send up a silent prayer to whichever god may be listening."
"But in the meantime we’ve pulled the suitcases out from the cupboard under the stairs and begun to pack the things we don’t need at the moment."
"You see, the grass is beginning to grow again. And if it can rise again from the dust, then so can we, n’est-ce pas, Josie?"
"The swifts were performing their displays of aerobatics, soaring and swooping as they caught flies in the cooling air of the late afternoon against the forget-me-not blue of the sky."
"It’s been wonderful reading this all over again. You’ve given me back so many happy memories."
"I don’t cry as I’m telling Josie all this. It’s a relief to be able to speak my truth to someone who understands that a heart can be as empty as the Sahara Desert and still somehow go on beating."