Quotes from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“I address you all tonight for who you truly are: wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, and magicians. You are the true dreamers.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Maybe we are all cabinets of wonders.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Time can play all sorts of tricks on you. In the blink of an eye, babies appear in carriages, coffins disappear into the ground, wars are won and lost, and children transform, like butterflies, into adults.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“If you've ever wondered where your dreams come from when you go to sleep at night, just look around. This is where they are made. ”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was meant to do...Maybe it's the same with people," Hugo continued. "If you lose your purpose...it's like your broken.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“As I look out at all of you gathered here, I want to say that I don't see a room full of Parisians in top hats and diamonds and silk dresses. I don't see bankers and housewives and store clerks. No. I address you all tonight as you truly are: wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, and magicians. You are the true dreamers.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Even if all the clocks in the station break down, thought Hugo, time won't stop. Not even if you really want it to.

Like now.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“I hope the snow covers everything so all the footsteps are silenced, and the whole city can be at peace. ”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Sometimes I come up here at night...just to look at the city. I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Fairy tales only happen in movies."
-George Melies

from The Invention of Hugo Cabret”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“In that moment, the machinery of the world lined up. Somewhere a clock struck midnight, and Hugo's future seemed to fall perfectly into place.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Like a mermaid rising from an ocean of paper, the girl emerged across the room.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Did you ever notice that all machines are made for some reason?" he asked Isabelle. "They are built to make you laugh, like the mouse here, or to tell the time, like clocks, or to fill you with wonder like the automaton. Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was made to do." Isabelle picked up the mouse, wound it again, and set it down. "Maybe it's the same with people," Hugo continued. "If you lose your purpose...it's like you're broken.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“She walked to the rear door and took out a bobby pin from her pocket. Hugo watched as she fiddled with the pin inside the lock until it clicked and the door opened. "How did you learn to do that?" asked Hugo. "Books," answered Isabelle.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“The idea of going to the movies made Hugo remember something Father had once told him about going to the movies when he was just a boy, when the movies were new. Hugo's father had stepped into a dark room, and on a white screen he had seen a rocket fly right into the eye of the man in the moon. Father said he had never experienced anything like it. It had been like seeing his dreams in the middle of the day.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“It looks like the whole city is made out of stars.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Time can play all sorts of tricks on you. In the blink of an eye, babies appear in carriages, coffins disappear into the ground, wars are won and lost, and children transform, like butterflies, into adults. That's what happened to me. Once upon a time, I was a boy named Hugo Cabret, and I desperately believed that a broken automaton would save my life. Now that my cocoon has fallen away and I have emerged as a magician named Professor Alcofrisbas, I can look back and see that I was right. The automaton my father discovered did save me. But now I have built a new automaton. I spent countless hours designing it. I made every gear myself, carefully cut every brass disk, and fashioned every bt of machinery with my own hands. When you wind it up, it can do something I'm sure no other automaton in the world can do. It can tel you the incredible story of Georges Melies, his wife, their goddaughter, and a beloved clock maker whose son grew up to be a magician. The complicated machinery inside my automaton can produce one-hundred and fifty-eight different pictures, and it can wrote, letter, by letter, an entire book, twenty-six thousand one hundred and fifty-nine words. These words.

THE END”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“My house had suddenly turned into a hospital ward.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Hugo learned that Prometheus had created humankind out of mud, and then stolen fire from the gods as a gift for the people he had made, so they could survive. So Prometheus was a thief.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“How did you learn to do that?" asked Hugo. "Books," answered Isabelle.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Then you know Prometheus was rescued in the end. His chains were broken, and he was finally set free." The old man squinted one of his eyes and added, "How about that?”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Did you ever notice that all machines are made for some reason? … They are built to make you laugh, like the mouse here, or to tell the time, like clocks, or to fill you with wonder like the automaton. Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was meant to do. … Maybe it's the same with people: if you lose your purpose, it's like you're broken.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Hugo headed off toward the door to leave, but the bookstore was warm and quiet, and the teetering piles of books fascinated him.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Si dejas de tener un propósito en la vida es como... como si te rompieras.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Having an eye patch actually makes it easier to look through a camera - I don't have to close one eye like everyone else.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“«Si alguna vez te has preguntado de dónde vienen los sueños que tienes por la noche, mira a tu alrededor y lo sabrás. Aquí es donde se hacen los sueños».”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Si dejas de tener un propósito en la vida es como… como si te rompieras.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Tal vez sea esa la razón de que las máquinas rotas resulten tan tristes: ya no pueden cumplir con el propósito para el que fueron creadas.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

“Sometimes I come up here at night, even when I'm not fixing the clocks, just to look at the city. I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is one big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.”
― Brian Selznick, quote from The Invention of Hugo Cabret

About the author

Popular quotes

“Never let them take what you're not willing to give.”
― quote from Stray

“To-day all our novels and newspapers will be found to be swarming with numberless allusions to the popular character called a Cave-Man. He seems to be quite familiar to us, not only as a public character but as a private character. His psychology is seriously taken into account in psychological fiction and psychological medicine. So far as I can understand, his chief occupation in life was knocking his wife about, or treating women in general with what is, I believe, known in the world of the film as 'rough stuff.' I have never happeend to come upon the evidence for this idea; and I do not know on what primitive diaries or prehistoric divorce-reports it is founded. Nor, as I have explained elsewhere, have I ever been able to see the probability of it, even considered a priori. We are always told without any explanation or authority that primitive man waved a club and knocked the woman down before he carried her off. But on every animal analogy, it would seem an almost morbid modesty and reluctance, on the part of the lady, always to insist on being knocked down before consenting to be carried off. And I repeat that I can never comprehend why, when the male was so very rude, the female should have been so very refined. The cave-man may have been a brute, but there is no reason why he should have been more brutal than the brutes. And the loves of the giraffes and the river romances of the hippopotami are affected without any of this preliminary fracas or shindy.”
― G.K. Chesterton, quote from The Everlasting Man

“I again flourished my papers: “Here’re my credentials from the Coalition Administration.”

The American scrutinized the papers, shook his head in amazement, and smiled. “A South African,” he said. “You’re sure a long way from home.” He radioed through for instructions and indicated that I should bring my hired car up to the side of the roadblock and wait.”
― Lawrence Anthony, quote from Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo

“Имаше проснато пране, беше пролет, сезонът на голямото чистене, на отворените прозорци. От време на време някой гарван вдигаше врява по улиците, никой не му обръщаше внимание. Градът беше мирен, никой не се питаше кой знае колко от какъв етнос е другият, съседът или жената. Обичаха се или се ненавиждаха по вътрешен усет, заради излъчването, както навсякъде по света.”
― Margaret Mazzantini, quote from Twice Born

“Darling, I don't want you; I've got no place for you; I only want what you give. I don't want the whole of anyone.... What you want is the whole of me-isn't it, isn't it?-and the whole of me isn't there for anybody. In that full sense you want me I don't exist.”
― Elizabeth Bowen, quote from The Death of the Heart

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.