Silver Nitrate Quotes
"It's not every day you run into a German occultist who is writing movies in Mexico City."
"It happens. Show business is about remaking people."
"No such thing as luck, but I'll tell Araceli to buy you a rabbit's foot next time she goes to the Mercado de Sonora."
"People noticed only when you fucked it up, not when you got it right."
"It was a thankless job that had her sometimes catching three hours of sleep on one of the couches around Antares so she could keep working through the night."
"Theirs was the bountiful affection of children who sat close to the TV set, mouth open, and watched monsters carrying maidens away."
"But no, he couldn’t forget what had happened."
"Fear gives others power over you and clouds your mind. It makes the magic go sour."
"Magic, trapped forever and forever spinning through a projector. Magic fixed in time and space with silver."
"You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes."
"The truest form of sorcery requires the sacrifice of the self."
"You should never be afraid of magic. That’s what Ewers said in his book."
"I’m trying to understand the logic he employed, the underlying mechanism."
"Fear is a natural reaction to seeing ghosts."
"Magic is the alchemy of soul and desire, the rarest of fusions."
"We’re part of Ewers’s spell now. You don’t undo a spell by pretending it was never cast."
"I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but Clarimonde Bauer and José López might."
"We throw gasoline on it and burn it in an alley."
"We are going to find them. I have no idea where he is, but I have her address."
"I’ve been reading. Look, I made a protective charm."
"I don’t know the first thing about witchcraft."
"You have no idea what I’ve been through. I saw Karina, with blood dripping down her body."
"Magic does not easily dissipate, it lingers in the air."
"Sympathetic magic... You establish a link between two objects."
"We basically tell the film that we are screening the credits, that the movie is over."
"It's not as if we have many candidates for the post."
"I don’t care if he’s a vampire, why the hell do I have to be the one who talks to a ghost? If we don’t know the right runes, we’ll guess. Trial and error, like I said."
"You probably have something that belonged to her. That’s useful when summoning ghosts. Anything personal or of significance to the deceased helps form a link."
"Ghosts are not dangerous," López said. "They’re shadows, immaterial."
"Magic requires many elements to work, and most people don’t have all of them at once."
"Ewers was no Atlantean, he was a kid who became a good thief."
"You are already speaking to the dead," López said. "You might want to hang up on your dead girlfriend instead of dialing her every day."
"Look at that picture, look at that girl. She’s twenty-four there. She’s a kid stumbling around, making dumb choices, but still a kid."
"I’ve spent ten years thinking about her. It’s a habit. God, Momo, it’s like sinking in quicksand."
"Words are also ritual, gestures are spells. Promise to obey me, be a servant to a great lord, and I’ll grant you immense power."
"I’ve never been weak," she whispered. "And neither has Tristán."
"But you are weak. Yes. You are dead, Wilhelm Ewers. Dead and buried and nothing but ash," she said, abruptly, fiercely; each word was thought made will and emotion.
"It’s the end of the show," she said. "Your movie is over. And so are you. We will it and therefore it is."
"Even if the darkness never ended and swallowed him whole, he’d still run to her."
"Magic is about symbols," Ewers said. "Things spoken that have a second meaning. Magic is ritual."
"You were brave because I’m being exceedingly kind. Do not doubt that I can still harm you."
"Words are ritual, gestures are spells," she muttered, dazed.
"I drew the runes!" Tristán yelled. "Be gone!"
"Magic is willpower, that’s what Momo said. He didn’t know what that meant, but he knew he needed Momo as much as the flames inside that building needed oxygen to burn."
"You’d save on the rent. We probably shouldn’t inflict ourselves on other people."
"It’s twenty years of foreplay, Momo. Do you want to wait a few more decades until I can’t masticate my own food?"
"You’re an asshole," she said. "You going to kiss me or what?" he asked, voice husky.
"This was life, they figured. Not a fabulous medley of spells, hexes, and intoxicating power, but the simple, ordinary assembly of sights and sounds that were nevertheless a wonder, for they were viewing and listening to them together."