The Book Of Lost Names Quotes
"How nice it must be, to be haunted by questions rather than ghosts."
"She doesn't understand what it means to love books so passionately that you would die without them, that you would simply stop breathing, stop existing."
"The world goes silent as I reach for the newspaper, my hand trembling nearly as much as it did the last time I held the book."
"Though my son tells me I'm blessed to have such a sharp mind in my old age, like many blessings this one is mixed."
"But when you grow comfortable hiding within a protective shell, it's harder than one might expect to stand up and say, 'Actually, folks, this is who I am.'"
"One's reward for marching through the decades is a gradual process of erasure."
"We will come up with a plan to secure his release. I promise. We can't do anything if we're arrested, too, though."
"To the Gare de Lyon," Eva said as they passed the Place de Vosges, where Tatuś had once taught her to ride a bike, where he had picked her up countless times after she’d skinned her knees. Her heart ached and she pushed thoughts of him away.
"The only chance we have of saving him is to save ourselves first."
"How convenient to so easily turn your back on your own people," her mother muttered.
"I grow these in my garden," Madame Barbier interrupted. "And you both look—and sound—famished. So have some food. I won’t ask again."
"You’re someone who finds herself in the pages," the woman clarified, gesturing to the shelves all around. "Someone who sees her reflection in the words."
"Because books bring us to another time and place," the woman said as she handed over Eva’s pens and accepted the francs Eva gave her. "And you look as if you need that."
"We have to believe," Eva said, starting toward the stairs.
"This is a mistake. You took advantage of my grief to persuade me."
"She used to fear being erased, like it was the worst fate in the world."
"I’ve been erasing her all these years, haven’t I?"
"He erases me, just like I erased my own mother, by giving himself permission to see me as something I’m not."
"France may have turned her back. But did that mean that Eva could do the same when lives hung in the balance?"
"My France is the one my husband fought for in the Great War, and the one my son gave his life for."
"What you should be doing, moje serduszko, my heart, is looking out for your family."
"There are plenty of people resisting in their own ways. Be careful not to underestimate anyone."
"It might have been too late to save her father, but she had just seen up close what was happening to thousands of other Jews. If there was something she could do to help, she didn’t have a choice."
"We will survive," Eva said. "And we will be waiting when he comes back."
"Because someone should remember. How else will they find their way home?"
"It's never too late to reclaim at least some of what I lost," she thought.
"I feel like a fish out of water, a fish who has no idea how to swim to the place she needs to go."
"Parents make all sorts of errors, because our ability to raise our children is always colored by the lives we’ve lived before they came along."
"I can’t leave without telling my son, even if he has never really seen me for who I am."
"What if he talked me out of this? What if he insisted I come home?"
"If I board this flight, there will be no going back."
"I can’t turn my back on the past any longer."
"I wish a better future for Jay, but the thing is, parents make all sorts of errors."
"The truth was, when Eva was young, her parents had taught her that saying the prayer before she went to sleep would protect her from the demons that came in the dark."
"The path of life is darkest when we choose to walk it alone."
"It’s difficult for her, I think, to be stuck in the church all day with no contact with anyone she’s saving. It would help to be reminded of exactly what she’s risking so much for."
"The war will end someday, and if they don’t have an education, where will they be?"
"One day, when Eva had to produce false papers for the girl, she would learn who she really was. She wondered where she had come from, where she would go from here. She seemed so young to have her whole life ripped from her."
"I think there’s every reason to hope they are."
"There are men assembling in the woods, training. Preparing."
"In fact, by some miracle, he even knew a few words of Austro-Bavarian, apparently enough to fool the gendarmes."
"Maybe it was Madame Barbier’s words about saving France, or perhaps God was listening to her prayers after all and steering her in the right direction."
"Unless this meeting is innocent, she reminded herself."
"Helping them makes me feel like I can bring some light to the world, even in the midst of all the darkness."
"If you trust me with these documents, I promise I’ll do everything I can to locate him."
"You can’t judge a person by their language or their place of origin—though it seems that each new generation insists upon learning that lesson for itself."
"Once you’ve fallen in love with books, their presence can make you feel at home anywhere, even in places where you shouldn’t belong."
"We can’t blame ourselves, though. We can only take the responsibility of preventing the same things from happening to others."
"This is bigger than us. This is about saving innocent lives."
"You must go to Switzerland tonight, my love. It’s the only way for you to live, and you must live, Eva."
"God knows who you are. He always has and always will. He sees your hearts, even in the darkness."
"The greatest deeds in life require us to rise above our fear."
"Once we’re over the border, run toward the first Swiss soldier you see. They will bring you to safety."
"You must be brave, and you must believe that God is watching you."
"A church always stands as long as God remains."
"We don’t have much time, Eva. You must leave Aurignon before they realize you’re back."
"Someone within our inner circle betrayed us, Eva."
"I can’t abandon my mother. I must do what I can to save her."
"God opens doors we don’t even know are there."
"My place always has been—and always will be—in Aurignon."
"Hope is a dangerous thief, stealing her todays for a tomorrow that would never come."
"You must promise me that you will come back to life."
"I will try for the rest of my life to make you happy."
"Some chapters must be finished, though, some books closed."
"We are only responsible for the things we do—or fail to do—ourselves."
"Reuniting a book with its rightful owner can be magical."
"We aren’t defined by the names we carry or the religion we practice, or the nation whose flag flies over our heads. We’re defined by who we are in our hearts, who we choose to be on this earth."
"I’ve always thought that it’s those children—the ones who realize that books are magic—who will have the brightest lives."
"You don’t need money or weapons or a big platform to change the world. Sometimes, something as simple as a pen and a bit of imagination can alter the course of history."