Daniel Handler Quotes - Page 7

Making you happy isn't making me happy.

But we can also ask for something we are much more likely to get, and that is to find a person or two, somewhere in our travels, who will tell us that we are noble enough, whether it is true or not. We can ask for someone who will say, “You are noble enough,” and remind us of our good qualities when we have forgotten them, or cast them into doubt.

Everyone tells you it's all right to cry, but not enough people say it's all right if you don't want people to know.

It was a secret time and place, you next to me, untraceable and out of this world

There was something I was always very good at, however, and that was teaching myself not to be frightened while frightening things are going on. It is difficult to do this, but I had learned. It is simply a matter of putting one’s fear aside, like the vegetable on the plate you don’t want to touch until all of your rice and chicken are gone, and getting frightened later, when one is out of danger. Sometimes I imagine I will be frightened for the rest of my life because of all of the fear I put aside during my time in Stain’d-by-the-Sea.

...there's nothing wrong with occasionally staring out the window and thinking nonsense, as long as the nonsense is yours.

But I must admit I miss you terribly. The world is too quiet without you nearby.

When trouble strikes, head to the library. You will either be able to solve the problem, or simply have something to read as the world crashes down around you.

I do what I do," I said, "in order to do something else.

This knowledge sits in my heart, heavy as a paperweight.

Sometime during your life—in fact, very soon—you may find yourself reading a book, and you may notice that a book’s first sentence can often tell you what sort of story your book contains.

For Beatrice - you will always be in my mind, in my heart and in your grave.

There was still plenty of water in the basement, and I felt it soaking me from the knees on down. If someone wanted to torture me until I told them a critical piece of information, all they would have to do is get my socks wet. It feels terrible.

Hello, freaky peoples!

I am certain that over the course of your own life, you have noticed that people's rooms reflect their personalities. In my room, for instance, I have gathered a collection of objects that are important to me, including a dusty accordion on which I can play a few sad songs, a large bundle of notes on the activities of the Baudelaire orphans, and a blurry photograph, taken a very long time ago, of a woman whose name is Beatrice. These are items that are very precious and dear to me.

All his life, Klaus had believed that if you read enough books, you could solve any problem, but now he wasn't so sure.

Here we are at the bottom, almost empty. It's like confetti, these dried remnants you find in the street for a party no one invited you to. But they used to be, I can admit, part of something beautiful.

Everything else has vanished, so you take them now. Maybe if you're the one keeping them, I'll be the one feeling better.

And then like a song we'd forgotten was even on the mix, you stepped into the house and my whole life.

One's home is like a delicious piece of pie you order in a restaurant on a country road one cozy evening - the best piece of pie you have ever eaten in your life - and can never find again. After you leave home, you may find yourself feeling homesick, even if you have a new home that has nicer wallpaper and a more efficient dishwasher than the home in which you grew up.

The Long Goodbye' is one book I like to read over and over again, and it was an enormous inspiration for 'All The Wrong Questions'.

I can see it, Ed, I leaned deeper into you, felt you nodding along with the sounds in the room, and your warmth signaled through to me from under your shirt, lovely strong, safe and right.

Never mind what my name is,” the man said. “No one can pronounce it anyway. Just call me Sir.

Put your hair up, Min. The secret ingredient is not your hair.

This is an absurd moral, for you and I both know that sometimes not only is it good to lie, it is necessary to lie.