Quotes By Person: Peter S. Beagle

“Me, I drink, I still smoke, I still eat all kinds of stuff they tell me not to eat - I don't even floss, for God's sake. My circulation works like the post office, and even my cholesterol has arthritis. Only reason I've lasted this long is I had this stupid job teaching beautiful, useless stuff to idiots.”

-Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros, Peter S. Beagle

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“But Molly pushed him aside and went up to the unicorn, scolding her as though she were a strayed milk cow. 'Where have you been?' Before the whiteness and the shining horn, Molly shrank to a shilling beetle, but this time it was the unicorn's old dark eyes that looked down.

'I am here now,' she said at last.

Molly laughed with her lips flat. 'And what good is it to me that you're here now? Where were you twenty years ago, ten years ago? How dare you, how dare you come to me now, when I am this?' With a flap of her hand she summed herself up: barren face, desert eyes, and yellowing heart. 'I wish you had never come, why do you come now?' The tears began to slide down the sides of her nose.”

-The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

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“I know you. I almost knew you as soon as I saw you on the road, coming to my door with your cook and your clown. Since then, there is no movement of yours that had not betrayed you. A pace, a glance, a turn of the head, the flash of your throat as you breathe, even your way of standing perfectly still-- they were all my spies.”

-The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

~

“Prince Lir stood between her body and the Bull, weaponless, but with his hands up as though they still held a sword and shield. Once more in that endless night, the prince said, 'No.'

He looked very foolish, and he was about to be trampled flat. The Red Bull could not see him, and would kill him without ever knowing that he had been in the way. Wonder and love and great sorrow shook Schmendrick the Magician then, and came together inside him, and filled him, filled him until he felt himself brimming and flowing with something that was none of these. He did not believe it, but it came to him anyway, as it had touched him twice before and left him more barren than he had been. This time, there was too much of it for him to hold: it spilled through his skin, sprang from his fingers and toes, welled up equally in his eyes and his hair and the hollows of his shoulders. There was too much to hold, too much ever to use; and still he found himself weeping with the pain of his impossible greed. He thought, or said, or sang, 'I did not know that I was so empty, to be so full.'”

-The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

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“The prince said, 'Who is she Molly? What kind of woman is it who believes-who knows, for I saw her face-that she can cure wounds with a touch, and who weeps without tears?' Molly went on about her work, still humming to herself. 'Any woman can weep without tears,' she answered over her shoulder, 'and most can heal with her hands. It depends on the wound. She is a woman, Your Highness, and that's riddle enough.'”

-The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

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“The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.”

-The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

~

“You know better than to expect a butterfly to know your name. All they know are songs and poetry, and anything else they hear. They mean well, but they can't seem to keep things straight. And why should they? They die so soon.”

-The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle

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