Magical Realism Quotes

“And in case you haven't noticed, somebody's always killing women.”
― Kirsten Miller, The Change

“The sound of the trumpets died away and Orlando stood stark naked. No human being since the world began, has ever looked more ravishing. His form combined in one the strength of a man and a woman’s grace. As he stood there, silver trumpets prolonged their note, as if reluctant to leave the lovely sight which their blast had called forth; and Chastity, Purity, and Modesty, inspired, no doubt, by Curiosity, peeped in at the door and threw a garment like a towel at the naked form which, unfortunately, fell short by several inches. Orlando looked at himself up and down in a long looking-glass, without showing any signs of discompose, and went presumably, to his bath.

We many take advantage of this pause in the narrative to make certain statements. Orlando had become a woman - there is no denying it. But in every other respect, Orlando remained precisely as he had been. The change in sex, though it altered their future, did nothing whatever to alter their identity. Their faces remained, as their portraits prove, practically the same. His memory - but in the future we must, for convention’s sake, say ‘her’ for ‘his’, and ‘she’ for ‘he’ - her memory then, went back through all the events of her past life without encountering any obstacle. Some slight haziness there may have been, as if a few dark spots had fallen into the clear pool of memory; certain things had become a little dimmed; but that was all. The change seemed to have been accomplished painlessly and completely and in such a way that Orlando herself showed no surprise at it. Many people, taking this into account, and holding that such a change in sex is against nature, have been at great pains to prove (1) that Orlando has always been a woman, (2) that Orlando is at this moment a man. Let biologists and psychologists determine. It is enough for us to state the simple fact; Orlando was a man till the age of thirty; when he became a woman and has remained so ever since.”
― Virginia Woolf, Orlando

“Compassion was a kind of magic; listening was at least half the task.”
― Leone Ross, Popisho

“Love destroys people. It’s emotional heroin. Not that I know much about shooting up.”
― Benjamin Haymond, Shadows Within the Fog

“Wisdom and maturity were supposed to go hand in hand. Nessa had turned forty-eight in February, and she still didn't have a clue.”
― Kirsten Miller, The Change

“For the first time in my life, I was alone. And for the first time in my life, I knew what the hell I was doing.”
― Kirsten Miller, The Change

“Butterflies were like alcohol. The heat of a good wine in a burnt orange butterfly. The cool swallow of rare ship-bought vodka in clear, white and blue beauties.”
― Leone Ross, Popisho

“There in those moments beside her, I discovered a world so infinitely large that my past with its disappointments and insecurities seemed insignificant.”
― Benjamin Haymond, Shadows Within the Fog

“I am trying, but I can’t easily erase her from my heart with the wave of a magic wand. What I felt for Lana was deep. I still love her as much as I hate her.”
― L. Starla, Winter's Thrall

“She imagined, now, what it would be like to accept herself completely. Every mistake she had ever made. Every mark on her body. Every dream she hadn't reached or pain she had felt. Every lust or longing she had suppressed. She imagined accepting it all. The way she accepted nature. The way she accepted a glacier or a puffin or the breach of a whale. She imagined seeing herself as just another brilliant freak of nature. Just another sentient animal, trying their best. And in doing so, she imagined what it was like to be free.”
― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

“To be a human was to continually dumb the world down into an understandable story that keeps things simple.”
― Matt Haigh

“I think it is easy to imagine there are easier paths," she said, realising something for the first time. "But maybe there are no easy paths. There are just paths. In one life, I might be married. In another, I might be working in a shop. I might have said yes to this cute guy who asked me out for a coffee. In another I might be researching glaciers in the Arctic Circle. In another, I might be an Olympic swimming champion. Who knows? Every second of every day we are entering a new universe. And we spend so much time wishing our lives were different, comparing ourselves to other people and to other versions of ourselves, when really most lives contain degrees of good and degrees of bad.”
― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

“The paradox of volcanoes was that they were symbols of destruction but also life. Once the lava slows and cools, it solidifies and then breaks down over time to become soil -- rich, fertile, soil. She wasn't a black hole, she decided. She was a volcano. And like a volcano she couldn't run away from herself. She'd have to stay there and tend to that wasteland. She could plant a forest inside herself.”
― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

“Deflection and denial won’t hide the truth from me, sweetheart. I look forward to breaking down all your defences and inhibitions.”
― L. Starla, Winter's Thrall

“RONNIE: Yes, but first impressions are not always right.

HUGO: Has that been the case with people you’ve dated?

RONNIE: I don’t know. In most cases I’ve never given it the chance to go further than my first impression.

HUGO: Because you see everything after.

RONNIE: Yes, the first impression is always overpowered by the potential future I see afterwards. So I don’t focus on it. There’s never been a first impression that made me want to stay.

HUGO: What if I asked you to stay? Just to see what will happen.”
― Alyssa Ahle, Five Short Plays of Magical Realism

“MAN: I’ll just circle back the way I came. I’m really sorry to have bothered you. (Starts to leave.)

WOMAN: Who are you looking for anyway?

MAN: (Hesitates, not sure if he should tell her.) Um…my soulmate.

WOMAN: (Instantly serious.) Oh.

MAN: Yeah.

WOMAN: No wonder you need to find them.

MAN: How mad do you think they’ll be?

WOMAN: That you got lost? I think they’ll understand.”
― Alyssa Ahle, Five Short Plays of Magical Realism

“MAN: But this isn’t a fantasy. This is really happening.

WOMAN: What’s happening is that you’ve been misled by the idea that two people can fit perfectly together without their inherent flaws driving them apart.

MAN: I don’t think that.

WOMAN: Really? Then what do you think?

MAN: I think a soulmate is someone you fit imperfectly together with, someone who sees you for who you are and loves you for it. Someone whose soul complements yours.”
― Alyssa Ahle, Five Short Plays of Magical Realism

“AARON: Sorry. Look, maybe we can still salvage our time together. Maybe I can help you figure out why I don’t want to be with you this time.

IVY: What is this world coming to? I can’t even get lucky in my dreams.

AARON: Come on…you know you’re curious.

IVY: Fine. Let’s have at my subconscious.”
― Alyssa Ahle, Five Short Plays of Magical Realism

“ETHAN: Wait, please don’t tell me you actually sell love potions. That violates consent.

CASHIER: No. We don’t sell them, and we never will, but there will always be those that think we do. Those are the ones we have to watch out for, the ones who want to possess others.

ETHAN: I see.”
― Alyssa Ahle, Five Short Plays of Magical Realism

“CASHIER: You’re aware of the side effects of an anti-amour, right?

ETHAN: I’ve heard rumors.

CASHIER: They’re all true.

ETHAN: Wait, it actually dries up your heart?

CASHIER: Partially.

ETHAN: What?

CASHIER: Well, this tonic works the opposite way a regular one does. Instead of restoring, it destroys. When the anti-amour goes in to “cure” you, it kills a part of your heart in the process. Then there’s the other tradeoff.

ETHAN: Which is?

CASHIER: The pain will go away, but you’ll find it difficult to love as easily or strongly in the future. That leads to a new kind of pain, which I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

ETHAN: I don’t think it could be any worse than what I’m feeling right now.

CASHIER: That’s what I said before I took it.”
― Alyssa Ahle, Five Short Plays of Magical Realism

“MAYA: I like your glasses.

GARRETT: Thanks.

MAYA: Could you take them off?

GARRETT: You just said you liked them.”
― Alyssa Ahle, Five Short Plays of Magical Realism

“HUGO: If people knew the risks, they wouldn’t date.

RONNIE: Exactly. Which is why I don’t.”
― Alyssa Ahle, Five Short Plays of Magical Realism

“I like distributed systems. If just one person truly believes in the existence of something imaginary, he's an idiot. But when thousands of people even slightly believe, you get beautifully painted eggs hidden under bushes and quarters exchanged for loose teeth under your pillow.  You get Elvis presiding at weddings and cookie crumbs on the plate left for Santa each Christmas morning.”
― Raymond St. Elmo, The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing

“Magical realism is a rain of flowers falling during a funeral, no one asking why. It is finding a dull reference to a non-existent country in an old encyclopedia, and then finding an explanation which leads to a further secret deeper in. It's a bridge bursting into fire after you cross. In pure form it is never explained, which means that just possibly it is not even unnatural.”
― Raymond St. Elmo, The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing

“There is a way of thinking that is a kind of madness. You look for signs and meaning in clouds and leaves and cards and license plates. And you find it, almost. The revelation is just a little past your reach, leading you on till you are trading secrets with a stranger in the elevator or a tree in the park. That is Magic Thinking. But Magic Realism says, ‘suppose it is true, just for a day, just for a page.’ The weird and magical happens, unexplained, turning everyday life into a mystery.”
― Raymond St. Elmo, The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing

“Before meeting her, I didn’t believe in love at first sight. But after meeting her, I no longer believed that I had not believed in love at first sight. As soon as I looked into her eyes, I might have heard Jeff Healy crooning about what I did or said to turn her angel eyes my way in the back of my mind.”
― Benjamin Haymond, Shadows Within the Fog

“... ,God and I had an agreement that I would leave him alone and he would leave me alone. But now I needed him. I was in love with Katie and I knew it was real.”
― Benjamin Haymond, Shadows Within the Fog

“For how long had Magdeburg avoided the epic tragedy that had befallen so many other cities? That I can’t say. But the day calamity first descended unto the city was a calm one. It came in place of the holy spirit on Pentecost.”
― Benjamin Haymond, Shadows Within the Fog

“Later, I left the solitude of those forests and traveled until I came upon a city on the Regnitz River in north Franconia shortly before it flows into the Main River. The city was Bamberg. I arrived to find a world readying for the final days. The weather had turned cold, crops had failed, and people were hungry.”
― Benjamin Haymond, Shadows Within the Fog

“The circumstances from the past never allowed me to be anything but a witness beyond your first wedding. Maybe you can finally break this curse and we can all go home. Keep the picture! I hope I will find relief from your story!”
― Benjamin Haymond, Shadows Within the Fog