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b68e512
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I swear that all dogs are born knowing certain words. Walk. Eat. Good dog. The important stuff.
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Charles de Lint |
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0e3fc08
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There's stories and then there's stories," he said, interrupting her. "The ones with any worth change your life forever, perhaps only in a small way, but once you've heard them, they are forever a part of you. You nurture them and pass them on and the giving only makes you feel better. "The others are just words on a page."
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Charles de Lint |
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02fa2e4
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Maybe she couldn't go. Maybe she wanted him to stay. But she knew enough not to try to hold him back if he had to go. It was no different than making friends with a wild creature. You could catch them and tie them up and make them stay with you, but their heart would never be yours. Their wild heart, the thing you loved about them...it would wither and die. So why would you want to do such a thing?
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Charles de Lint |
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a5f4e02
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I can't think of a better rationale to create a work of art. I don't care what form one's art takes, it has to be an attempt to leave the world a better place than it was before we got here or it's not doing its job. And I don't mean just making things that are pretty.
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Charles de Lint |
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a41abd0
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In one form or another, it was one of the first implements created by ancient people to give voice to the mysteries that words cannot encompass, but that they had a need to express. Only the drum was older.
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Charles de Lint |
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4d1b7ae
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The old gods and their magics did not dwindle away into murky memories of brownies and little fairies more at home in a Disney cartoon; rather, they changed. The coming of Christ and Christians actually freed them. They were no longer bound to people's expectations, but could now become anything that they could imagine themselves to be. "They are still here, walking among us. We just don't recognize them anymore."
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Charles de Lint |
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df67f09
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There are no happy endings," Cerin told her. "There are no real endings ever--happy or otherwise. We all have our own stories, which are just a part of the one Story that binds both this world and Faerie. Sometimes we step into each others' stories--perhaps just for a few minutes, perhaps for years--and then we step out of them again. But all the while, the Story just goes on."
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Charles de Lint |
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a74e9f0
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He's this Goth dude, can control people." "Goth, like a Visigoth German Viking of the middle ages, or a Neil Gaiman-looking, Robert Smith, make-up-and-moonbeams Cure fan?" "What's a Neil Gaiman?" "You're an idiot."
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Charles de Lint |
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5f1e5da
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Bi kashtesko merel i yag, his Uncle Nonka would have said. Without wood the fire would die. Dwelling on sorrow and prikaza merely made them grow.
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Charles de Lint |
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d9a7885
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in subsequent work where I explored the dark, I used the pseudonym Samuel M. Key.
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Charles de Lint |
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07836f6
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With every light another color. --Romany description of themselves
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Charles de Lint |
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a871486
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I've always wondered about the other religions. The Christian god is supposed to have created the world in seven days." "Their world--not ours." --
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Charles de Lint |
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93825f9
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You'd be okay with somebody eating you?" She shrugs. "If I'm stupid enough to get caught, sure. Everybody's got to eat." "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that idea." "Nobody goes looking for it. But life isn't ours to keep. We only get to hold it for a little bit and then we've got to pass it on."
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Charles de Lint |
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43e8ab8
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telling me how the saguaro hold the spirits of the Kikimi who have lived a good life. He waited expectantly until I asked the question he was waiting for: What happens to those who live a bad life? They come back as people, he told me.
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Charles de Lint |
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0c9a37f
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She should have gotten a dog instead of having a kid. Dogs are easy to train and they like being led around on a leash.
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Charles de Lint |
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b11f220
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Everything can talk," the old woman replied. "The trick is, not everybody knows how to listen."
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Charles de Lint |
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f2f8b60
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Nothing strikes me as truly weird," Jilly told him. "There's only stuff I haven't figured out yet."
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Charles de Lint |
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eabd7b5
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Life and death are only different positions on the wheel.
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Charles de Lint |
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8c480d7
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On a quiet day, when the wind was still, the creek could be heard all the way up to where the old beech stood. Under its branches, cats would come to dream and be dreamed.
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dreams
circle
cats
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Charles de Lint |
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c5b21d2
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Change wasn't necessarily bad. It was just scary.
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Charles de Lint |
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13d8bb0
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On a quiet day, when the wind was still, the creek could be heard all the way up to where the old beech stood. Under its branches, cats would come to dream and be dreamed. Black cats and calicos, white cats and marmalade ones, too. But they hadn't yet gathered on the day the orphan girl fell asleep among its roots, nestling in the weeds and long grass like the gangly, tousle-haired girl she was. Her name was Lillian.
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dreams
circle
roots
cats
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Charles de Lint |
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0d35c8e
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On a quiet day, when the wind was still, the creek could be heard all the way up to where the old beech stood. Under its branches, cats would come to dream and be dreamed. Black cats and calicos, white cats and marmalade ones, too. Sometimes they exchanged gossip or told stories about L'il Pater, the trickster cat. More often they lay in a drowsy circle around the fat trunk of the ancient beech that spread its boughs above them. Then one of..
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dreams
father-of-cats
tousle-haired
circle
cats
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Charles de Lint |
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9b69f88
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She hadn't meant to fall asleep, but she was a bit like a cat herself, forever wandering in the woods, chasing after squirrels and rabbits as fast as her skinny legs could take her when the fancy struck, climbing trees like a possum, able to doze in the sun at a moment's notice. And sometimes with no notice at all.
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possum
wandering
woods
fancy
girls
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Charles de Lint |
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344fb6f
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She hadn't meant to fall asleep, but she was a bit like a cat herself, forever wandering in the woods, chasing after squirrels and rabbits as fast as her skinny legs could take her when the fancy struck, climbing trees like a possum, able to doze in the sun at a moment's notice. And sometimes with no notice at all. (This text is originally from A Circle of Cats, which was revised and re-adapted by the author for The Cats of Tanglewood Fore..
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possum
wandering
woods
fancy
girls
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Charles de Lint |
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ff06b4b
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There are few joys to compare with the telling of a well-told tale.
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Charles de Lint |
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74ff861
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If you're not ready to die, then how can you live?
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Charles de Lint |
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cc6798f
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I'm not Chinese. I thrive in interesting times.
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Charles de Lint |
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9f63f14
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The problem with children is that you have to put up with their parents.
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Charles de Lint |
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9a365d0
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That was the trouble with not paying attention to money. It was never there when you needed it.
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Charles de Lint |
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da52967
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I think you're all mad. But that's part and parcel of being an artistic genius, isn't it?
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Charles de Lint |
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362f1d0
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The real problem is, people think life is a ladder, and it's really a wheel.
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Charles de Lint |
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5778bcd
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Wisdom never comes to those who believe they have nothing left to learn.
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Charles de Lint |
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6f5086f
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There are people who take the heart out of you, and there are people who put it back.
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Charles de Lint |
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b4669ac
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That dichotomy between who she was and who she thought she should be was what really killed her.
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Charles de Lint |
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27dba58
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When you're invisible, no one can see that you're different.
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Charles de Lint |
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682ef63
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Only fools think they're wise; the rest of us just muddle through as we can.
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Charles de Lint |
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5fdaad0
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By enlarging your knowledge of things, you will find your knowledge of self is enlarged.
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Charles de Lint |
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32971df
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Life's like art. You have to work hard to keep it simple and still have meaning.
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Charles de Lint |
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177551d
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Nothing's different, but everything has changed.
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Charles de Lint |