Welcome to my commonplace blog

The goal of this blog is to preserve a few ideas and quotes from books I read. In the old days when books were not so readily available, people kept "commonplace books" where they copied choice passages they wanted to be able to remember and perhaps reuse. The idea got picked up by V.F.D. and it's common knowledge that most of that organization's volunteers have kept commonplace books, and so have Laura and I.

I'm sure there are many other Internet sites and blogs dedicated to the same idea. But this one is mine. Feel free to look around and leave comments, but not spam.

07 February 2011

The Magician's Elephant (Kate DiCamillo)

Another wonderful book by Kate DiCamillo; possibly the most magical of her novels. This book deals with her usual themes of motherless children who struggle to find themselves, but it expresses the hope that the impossible not only happens but must sometimes be hoped for, waited for, and counted upon.


Quotes:

Leo Matienne had the soul of a poet, and because of this, he liked very much to consider questions that had no answers.

It is not to be borne, the weeping of soldiers. Something is amiss in the universe when a soldier cries.

“Magic is always impossible,” said the magician. “It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it is magic.”

“It’s the impossible,” said Hans Ickman. “The impossible has happened again.”

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