The Vanishing Stair Quotes
"Out of everything in her Pittsburgh neighborhood, the Funky Munkee coffee shop was the thing that reminded Stevie Bell most of Ellingham Academy."
"Her desire to tell him this interesting news was overridden by a different sort of desire."
"What do you do when the devil turns up in your living room and offers you everything you want?"
"Anxiety and excitement are cousins; they can be mistaken for each other at points."
"Once you fly private, you'll never want to go back. Enjoy this. It's fun."
"Follow the Wonderland rule: Don't eat or drink anything."
"If this went down, Edward King went down too. Was she prepared for that?"
"Solving the case had been such a dream before, but now it was a real possibility."
"You want to solve crimes, Stevie? You can't act like you're smarter than everyone around you and do it all on your own. That's how people get hurt."
"The real magic rocks are the friends we make along the way."
"This home welcomed her as she was, which was unusual in her experience."
"If I wanted to ruin my day like that I’d go ahead and eat a candle."
"People don’t tend to change their behavior without reason. But make people see why they should..."
"DETECTION HAS MANY METHODS, MANY PATHWAYS, NARROW AND SUBTLE."
"You could be naked, you could scream and hang out on the roof, but you do not mess with the place with the books."
"People are saying those cameras we got? They’re from someone on the outside. The school didn’t want them."
"I don’t know. It’s private, though. I know you think I’m a paranoid protestor, but it’s true."
"The best way to note a height was to measure it against something that didn’t move."
"It’s simply nitroglycerine, stabilized and absorbed by diatomaceous earth and sodium carbonate."
"You seem interested. Go on. Tell me about dynamite."
"Your father would murder me if I made you too dangerous to marry."
"I’m surprised you read this kind of thing. Doesn’t seem very Ellingham Academy."
"Better you than me, kid. I never had the brains for that."
"This case is about money. It was always about the money."
"Though it smelled slightly of the faculty’s microwaved lunches and dirty coffee mugs, there was still a feeling of authenticity here."
"You were always going to show me, weren't you? If I didn't, you'd find your way down here some other way."
"Even if you have the best instinct in the world, it's the facts that matter."
"So many places to get lost in here, up here. In life. So many dark corners."
"Anatomy and dissection are linked in language and in practice."
"Everyone's something there. And you're something."
"The Ellingham attic was a place of true magic."
"To understand how bodies work, you need to get in there and have a look."
"No one wants to stay hidden forever. It's not human nature."
"If my guess is right, it goes to somewhere on the other side of the campus, somewhere secluded, sort of over here."
"For me to know. But if I’m right, and this book turns out the way I think it will, you’ll have been a part of it."
"This tunnel stuff was stupid. If there was a tunnel under Minerva, someone would have found it by now."
"Because I look. A lot of things happen when you go out and do them on purpose."
"But we’re here, and this is a holiday, which means we are going to celebrate because not everyone from this house can do that."
"Her breath snagged and she leaned her hip up against the wall for support, which was easy because the wall was only an inch away."
"What if it collapses? Like, suddenly? Just when we’re in it? For no reason?"
"There’s your assignment. See about that tunnel. Scout around."
"Don’t look, because if you look it stays with you forever."
"You don’t understand. He lives for that little girl. You’d think she was the only person in the world."
"Stevie closed her eyes again and let movies play out on the backs of her eyelids."
"You can get used to it, to dealing with it, but it’s hard."
"Don’t follow someone into the dark, Stevie. I’ve seen it happen too many times."
"Fight or flight. Like her therapist said, once you start the circuit of response, you have to complete it."
"When things are bad, give yourself a point for everything."
"You can’t believe until you can. Then it just is."
"Once you start doing something weird and you fully embrace it, it’s much easier to get on with it."
"It was like she had been run over by a boulder made of hippies."
"If they take me away, I need you to help me."
"Let’s solve the crime of the century. Why the fuck not?"
"There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact."
"It’s not about the money. It’s about the bears."
"Remember to play. Remember the game. Always remember the game."
"I may not have forever to do this. I need to show you something."
"Don’t worry about me. I think you have bigger problems than I do. At least I know I’m messed up."
"I don’t know how to do these things. I’m not good. With people."
"Reality continued to unwind its sinuous path, and she walked it."
"You have to feel it, to understand it in every way you could, to get inside of it."
"NEVER SAY DEAD, NEVER STAY DEAD. LOVE FOREVER, MELODY."
"I don’t know it all," Albert Ellingham said as he waved. "That’s why we’re here."
"There is nothing to explain," George Marsh said.
"That’s right," Albert said, his voice gentle. "You see now. Set it down, George. Talk and feel the relief."
"It was never supposed to happen the way it did," he finally said. "That’s what you need to understand."
"Money?" Albert Ellingham said. "George, if you needed money, why didn’t you come to me?"
"Quiet places, Stevie noted, were very noisy once you got used to them."
"There are reasons for everything, even if we don’t know them," Stevie said. "Motive."
"With mysteries," she said, "with crime, you get all this information—everything matters."
"It’s funny when you smile," she said. "It’s like a rainbow on a cloudy day."