Sara Gruen Quotes

When two people are meant to be together, they will be together. It's fate.

Keeping up the appearance of having all your marbles is hard work, but important.

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.

I look after those who look after me." He smacks his lips, stares at me, and adds, "I also look after those who don't." - Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants)

Life is the most spectacular show on earth.

The only thing that makes me crazier than writing is not writing.

When will people learn that just because you can make something doesn’t mean you should?

When I first submerged my feet into frigid water, they hurt so badly I yanked them out again. I persisted, dunking them for longer and longer periods, until the cold finally blistered.

I don't like outlining, because books are organic things. Sometimes a book doesn't want to be written in a certain way.

Don't want to get tipsy and break a hip.

Do you have any idea how much an elephant drinks?

It's just a crazy damned life, that's all.

It's as though I've been sleepwalking and suddenly woken to find myself here

Why the hell shouldn't I run away with the circus?

With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.

You do right by me, I'll show you a life most suckers can't even dream of.

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.

I have to convince myself that this is not a pointless life, even the body is telling me so.

Life goes on with fragile normalcy.

Honey, I plan to marry you the moment the ink is dry on that death certificate.

The more distressing the memory, the more persistent it's presence.

How is it that everyone on this train has so much alcohol?" "We always head to Canada at the beginning of the season," she says taking her seat again. "Their laws are much more civilized. Cheers.

I want her to melt into me, like butter on toast. I want to absorb her and walk around for the rest of my days with her encased in my skin. I want.

The whole thing's illusion, [Jacob], and there's nothing wrong with that. It's what people want from us. It's what they expect.

Is where you're from the place you're leaving or where you have roots?

Dear God. Not only am I unemployed and homeless, but I also have a pregnant woman, bereaved dog, elephant, and eleven horses to take care of.

i'm afraid to breathe in case i break the spell

Sometimes I think if I had to choose between an ear of corn or making love to a woman, I'd choose the corn.

I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.

Even when I look straight into the milky blue eyes I can't find myself any more. When did I stop being me?

Must protect my little pockets of happiness.

After sixty-one years together, she simply clutched my hand and exhaled.

What else do I have to offer? Nothing happens to me anymore. That’s the reality of getting old, and I guess that’s really the crux of the matter. I’m not ready to be old yet.

Even as your body betrays you, your mind denies it.

How hard can it be to find a girl and an elephant for Christ's sake?

I just think I'm better equipped to make a study of human personality than trying to get into the mind of animals.

I think there is just a vein of humanity that really loves animals and really loves to read about them.

I'm truly grateful for my microwave, which allows me to easily clarify butter, steam vegetables, and - when I am really lazy - feed my three kids in less than five minutes.

I just can't. I'm married. I made my bed and now I have to lie in it.

So what if I'm ninety-three? So what if I'm ancient and cranky and my body's a wreck? If they're willing to accept me and my guilty conscience, why the hell shouldn't I run away with the circus?

They grew fat and happy--the horses, not the children, or Marlena for that matter.

When did I stop being me?

You work hard on a book and throw it out there and then it's beyond your control.

The thought has cheered me, and I'd like to hang onto that. Must protect my little pockets of happiness.

I strain to hear, but my old ears, for all their obscene hugeness, pick up nothing but snippets.

Jacob: I've never seen so much manure. Wade: Baggage stock horses. They pack'em in 27 a car. Jacob: how do you stand the smell? Wade: what smell?

Then I lie down on the horse blanket and drift into a dream about Marlena that will probably cost me my soul.

I tend not to think about the reading public at all, or the business, when I'm writing.

We traveled for two weeks with a pickled hippo.

Being the survivor stinks.