“I stare at her for a long moment. I want to kiss her. I want to kiss her more than I've ever wanted anything in my life.”
Work
Nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. It's the Depression Era and Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. There he meets the freaks, grifters, and misfits that populate this world. He introduces us to Marlena, beautiful star of the equestrian act; to August, her charismatic but twisted husband (and the circus's animal trainer); and to Rosie, the seemingly untrainable elephant Jacob cares for. Beautifully written, with a luminous sense of time and place, Water for Elephants tells of love in a world in which love's a luxury few can afford.
Quotes
Showing 1-6 of 6
Sara Gruen
Canonical work source
“I stare at her for a long moment. I want to kiss her. I want to kiss her more than I've ever wanted anything in my life.”
“With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.”
“After sixty-one years together, she simply clutched my hand and exhaled.”
“I scan the room. Catherine is writing quickly, her light brown hair falling over her face. She is left-handed, and because she writes in pencil her left arm is silver from wrist to elbow.”
“Even as your body betrays you, your mind denies it.”
“Sometimes when you get older—and I'm not talking about you, I'm talking generally, because everyone ages differently—things you think on and wish on start to seem real. And then you believe...”