“I wish that everything was different. I wish that I was a part of something. I wish that anything I said mattered, to anyone. I mean, let’s face it: would anybody even notice if I disappeared tomorrow?”
“It was too late. Exactly as he spoke, Polly’s hand went out to touch one of the rings. And immediately, without a flash or a noise or a warning of any sort, there was no Polly. Digory and his Uncle were alone in the room.”
“You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”.”
“Those days are gone, and good fucking riddance to them; unhappiness really meant something back then. Now it’s just a drag, like a cold or having no money. If you really wanted to mess me up, you should have got to me earlier.”
“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”
“Our younger viewers will not remember the Batman. A recent survey shows that most high schoolers consider him a myth. But real he was. Even today, debate continues on the right and wrong of his one-man war on crime. This report would like to think that he’s alive and well, enjoying a celebratory drink in the company of friends...”
“If you are possessed of Fear, do not waste time trying to ‘kill out’ Fear, but instead cultivate the quality of Courage, and the Fear will disappear.”
“…the best actors are the most boring people. A strong sense of self was detrimental, because an actor had to let the self disappear; he had to let himself be subsumed by a character. ‘If you want to be a personality, be a pop star.‘”
″‘I think I seen every island in the world,’ he said.
‘And you come home to the prettiest one of all,’ I answered.
‘Yeah,’ he said, but his focus blurred for a moment. ‘The water’s about to get her, Wheeze.’
‘Only a bit, to the south,’ I said defensively.
‘Wheeze, open your eyes,’ he said. ‘In two years I’ve been gone, she’s lost at least an acre. Another good storm—’
It wasn’t right. He should have been more loyal. You don’t come home after two years away and suddenly inform your mother that she’s dying.”
“Clarice and her utterly best friend, Betty Moody, are planning to ace their book project about Ruby and win the class prize, until Betty disappears into thin air, and horrible teacher Mrs. Wilberton teams Clarice up with the naughtiest boy in school.”
“Morris sat under the Christmas tree. Suddenly he noticed a package that had been overlooked. He opened it. In it was a Disappearing Bag. Morris crawled right in.”
“The sad group passed slowly out of sight; but as it disappeared there fell upon the ear the sounds of sweet music, lovelier far than she had heard before - lovelier than the magic cuckoo’s most lovely songs - and somehow in the music, it seemed to the child’s fancy there were mingled the soft strains of a woman’s voice.”
“The sad group passed slowly out of sight; but as it disappeared there fell upon the ear the sounds of sweet music, lovelier far than she had heard before - lovelier than the magic cuckoo’s most lovely songs - and somehow in the music, it seemed to the child’s fancy there were mingled the soft strains of a woman’s voice.”
″‘Ever since I was little,’ Mullet Fingers said, ‘I’ve been watchin’ this place disappear - the piney woods, the scrub, the creeks, the glades. Even the beaches, man - they put up all these giant hotels and only goober tourists are allowed. It really sucks.‘”
It’s Gwyn Griffiths’ birthday, but celebrations are frowned on, as it is also the anniversary of his sister’s disappearance on the mountains above his house.
“He was sure the crafty old witch planned to fix him for good. If she could shrink him down to a runt of a thing she could turn him into a tadpole, or into a flea, or make him disappear altogether.”
“Before he’s completely gone, I reach out to grab a single petal and hold it tight against my chest. But somehow it slips through my fingers and vanishes into the sky. Just like the rest of him.”