Quotes from East

Edith Pattou ·  507 pages

Rating: (33.8K votes)


“That's the trouble with loving a wild thing: You're always left watching the door.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“East of the sun and west of the moon.' As unfathomable as the words were, I realized I must figure them out, reason it through. For I would go to this impossible land that lay east of the sun and west of the moon. From the moment the sleigh had vanished from sight and I could no longer hear the silver bells I knew that I would go after the stranger that had been the white bear to make right the terrible wrong I had done him.... All that mattered was to make things right. And I would do whatever it took, journey to wherever I must, to reach that goal.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“And telling a story, I suppose, is like winding a skein of spun yarn- you sometimes lose track of the beginning.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“The joy I feel is immense; it burns inside me as though I have swallowed a piece of the sun.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“East of the sun and west of the moon.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East



“It was the difference between walking with a stranger and walking with your heartmate. It was the difference between working for duty and working for love.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“She would search for him.
In the land that lay east of the sun and west of the moon.
But there was no way there.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“A pine needle fell in the forest. The hawk saw it. The deer heard it. The white bear smelled it”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“Here.
After so long waiting.
Her purple eyes.
Torn cloak.
Skin pale, sheer as ice.
Exhausted.
But unafraid.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“It is odd, the twists that life will sometimes take. The ewe that you think will give birth with ease dies bringing forth a two-headed lamb. Or the ski trail that you have been told is treacherous, you navigate easily.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East



“It was not a monster that lay sleeping on the white sheets. Nor a faceless horror. Nor even the white bear.
It was a man.
His hair was golden, glowing bright as a bonfire in the light of the candle. And his features were fair, I suppose, but he was a stranger and that somehow was the greatest shock of all- that I had been lying all these months beside a complete stranger.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“That's the trouble with loving a wild thing: You're always left watching the door.
But you also get kind of used to it.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“I crossed the room to him. "I love you," I said in a rush, afraid I would change my mind.
"Charles," he replied.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“They journeyed far and the white bear said, "Are you afraid?"
"No," she replied. "I am not afraid.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“Neither Rose nor Charles liked to talk much of their adventures with the trolls, but some of the so-called "softskins" whom they had brought out of Niflheim, as well as the crew of the ship Soren had hired to go north to find Rose, must have spread the story, because for many years afterward, there were tales of a race of trolls living on top of the world.
Only Rose and her white bear know the whole truth of it.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East



“Where is it?" I asked, willing him to tell me.
He laughed suddenly, and I could hear the full-throated, grating sound of the white bear's laughter in it.
"East of the sun and west of the moon," he said.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


“I knelt by the design. Yes, there was the sun rising. But the white form I had always thought to be a cloud was a bear. I could see it now, upside down. White bear, isbjorn, stood for north. Father had not been able to help himself. The truth was there, too. Truth and lie, side by side.”
― Edith Pattou, quote from East


About the author

Edith Pattou
Born place: Evanston, Illinois, The United States
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Popular quotes

“People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, quote from Slaughterhouse-five: The Children's Crusade, A Duty-dance with Death


“A few mad exaggerations, alright, within a couple of days: swear to fucking god, they were like throwing grenades and pulling out all kinds of crazy knackery, it was out of control. Whatever. As if the story, if big enough, reflected glory on the teller.”
― China Miéville, quote from Kraken


“He watches me eat for a moment. “Let me see it again.”

“No.”

“Okay.” He pulls a can of carbonated water out of his backpack and pops the lid.

Sometimes I want to punch him. I find the letter and slide it across the table.

He reads it again. It makes me feel all jittery inside.

His eyes flick up. “She likes you.”

I shrug and steal his drink. It tastes like someone drowned an orange in a bottle of Perrier, and I cough.

Rev smiles. “You like her.”

“How can you drink this crap?”

His smile widens. “Is it making you crazy that she won’t reveal herself?”

“Seriously, Rev, do you have any regular water?”

He’s no fool. “What do you want to do?”

I take a long breath and blow it out. I run a hand through my hair. “I don’t know.”

“You know.”

“I want to stake out the grave. This waiting between letters is killing me.”

“Suggest email.”

“She doesn’t want to tell me anything more than her age. She’s not going to give me her email address.”

“Maybe not her real email. But you could set up a private account and give her the address. See if she writes you.”

It’s so simple it’s brilliant. I hate that I didn’t think of it. “Rev, I could kiss you.”

“Brush your teeth first.” He reclaims his bizarre can of water.”
― Brigid Kemmerer, quote from Letters to the Lost


“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from Alkimist


“MOMA's values were blown through the American education system, from high school upwards-and downwards, too, greatly raising the status of "creativity" and "self-expression" in kindergarten. By the 1970s, the historical study of modern art had expanded to the point where students were scratching for unexploited thesis subjects. By the mid-eighties, twenty-one-year-old art-history majors would be writing papers on the twenty-six-year-old graffitists.”
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