Quotes about the night
page 8

“It gave me a strange feeling, and the rest of that night I didn’t say much, but merely sat there and drank, trying to decide if I was getting older and wiser, or just plain old.”

Hunter S. Thompson The Rum Diary

Source: The Rum Diary

Feeling

“Unbelievable! I said, "What would I be doing walking the streets at night as a stuffed olive- gate-crashing cocktail parties?”

Louise Rennison book Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

Source: Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

“The snow was too light to stay, the ground too warm to keep it. And the strange spring snow fell only in that golden moment of dawn, the turning of the page between night and day.”

Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist

Source: Palace of Stone

Spring, Light

“There's nothing like stories on a windy night when folks have found a warm place in a cold world.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: The Wind Through the Keyhole

World

“You know you're a hot mess when the only person buying you drinks all night is yourself.”

Chelsea Handler (1975) American comedian, actress, author and talk show host

Drink, Personality

“Maybe wrist corsages cut off circulation to the brain? I mean, is that why so many girls do stupid things on prom night? I was really going to have to investigate this further, I decided”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Stupidity, Girl

“I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night — there must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I'm not going to worry about them. I'm dreaming the hardest.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Variant: I used to think as I looked at the Hollywood night, «There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I'm not going to worry about them. I'm dreaming the hardest.

Dreams, Girl, Star, Thinking

“I saw thousands of pumpkins last night
come floating in on the tide,
bumping up against the rocks and
rolling up on the beaches;
it must be Halloween in the sea”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

Source: The Pill vs. the Springhill Mine Disaster

Sea

“Shut up, me" Leo said out loud.
"What?" Piper asked.
"Nothing," he said. "Long night. I think I'm hallucinating. It's cool.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Thinking

“Mother Night and May The Darkness Be Merciful!”

Anne Bishop (1955) American fiction writer

Source: Daughter of the Blood

“I came to you, Jane. Every night this week, I came to you. I didn't want you to be alone. And I didn't want to sleep without you." -Vishous”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Unleashed

Sleep

“If time were a bolt of cloth,” said Om, “I would cut out all the bad parts. Snip out the scary nights and stitch together the good parts, to make time bearable. Then I could wear it like a coat, always live happily.”

Rohinton Mistry A Fine Balance

Source: A Fine Balance

Time, Parting, Clothes

“When is the night over? Is it the start of sunrise or the end of it? Is it when you finally go to sleep or simply when you realize that you have to?”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Sleep

“The answers we seek aren't always the answers we want, are they? But knowing the truth is what helps us sleep at night.”

Karen White (1964) American writer

Source: The Beach Trees

Truth, Sleep, Help

“I learnt another valuable lesson that night: listen to the quiet voice inside. Intuition is the noise of the mind.”

Bear Grylls (1974) Chief Scout, adventurer, author

Source: Mud, Sweat and Tears

“Lucian was beginning to get used to hearing her small observations at night. More than anything, he realized he liked her voice in the dark. It made him feel less lonely.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Froi of the Exiles

Feeling

“There is dew
on these poems in the morning,
and at night a cool breeze may rise from them.

In the winter they are blankets, in the summer a place to swim.

I like talking to you like this. Have you moved
a step closer?

Soon we may be
kissing.”

Kabir (1440–1518) Indian mystic poet

Kiss, Winter, Summer

“… and the night is so deep and dark that I wonder if the sun will ever come up.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: I Am the Messenger

Sun

“Each night I lie down in a graveyard of memories. Moonlight spins a shroud about me.”

Jerry Spinelli book Love, Stargirl

Variant: Each night I lie down in a graveyard of memories.
Source: Love, Stargirl

Lie, Memory

“Will we ever stop being afraid of nights and death?

When you reach the stars, boy, yes, and live there forever, all the fears will go, and Death himself will die.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Death, Fear, Star, Boy

“If I believe in anything, it is in the dark night of the soul. Awe is my religion, and mystery is its church.”

Charles Simic (1938) American poet

Religion, Soul

“Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and ablities were used in a way that served others.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Way, Sleep, Success

“It is said that the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 132.

“Heart, we will forget him!
You and I, to-night!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.

When you have done, pray tell me,
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you're lagging,
I may remember him!”

Emily Dickinson book The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Love, p. 172
Collected Poems (1993)
Source: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Light, Heart, Forgetting

“[Creationists] make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Often attributed as remarks to the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) (1980)
General sources

“Look at him. The face of a bad angel and eyes like the night sky in Hell. He's very pretty, and vampires like that. I can't say I mind either.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Angels, Hell

“I'm the guy who happened to be home the night Kat came to steal a Monet."- Hale”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

Guy, Home

“My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.”

Cary Grant (1904–1986) British-American film and stage actor

As quoted in "Quotable Cary" at American Masters (25 May 2005)
Source: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33680672/the-los-angeles-times/ "Cary Grant: Doing What Comes naturally,"

“Our emotions
Are only “incidents”
In the effort to keep day and night together.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Effort

“You know, a cell phone's like a guy; if you don't plug him in every night, charge him good, you got nothing at all.”

Catherine Coulter (1942) American romance novelist

Source: Tail Spin

Guy

“I felt a haunting loneliness sometimes, and felt it in others--young clerks in the dusk, wasting the most poignant moments of night and life.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Life, Loneliness

“Watching a peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist

On Death and Dying (1969)

Death, Peace, Star, Light

“Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere, angel
Come get up my baby.
Look at that sky, life's begun
Nights are warm and the days are young
Come get up my baby.”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

Golden Years
Song lyrics, Station to Station (1976)

Life, Angels, Baby

“Now I am old-fashioned. A woman, I consider, should be womanly. I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which would make a billingsgate fishwoman blush!”

Agatha Christie book Murder on the links

Source: The Murder on the Links

Girl, Fashion, Patience

“There is so much more to this world then outward appearances. Our society basks in the illusion of normalcy every day, and hides from the truth every night.”

Amber Benson (1977) actress from the United States

Source: Accursed

Truth, World, Appearance

“College is the best time of your life. When else are your parents going to spend several thousand dollars a year just for you to go to a strange town and get drunk every night?”

David Wood (1946) British philosopher, born 1946

Life, Parent, Time

“So between you and me," I tell Justine on the phone that night, "we're either bitchy or stupid."
"Oh God," she moans. "Everyone thinks I'm an idiot."
"Thanks!”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

God, Stupidity, Thinking

“The night crackled… Everything had turned to static electricity in the heat. I combed my hair to watch the sparks fly from the ends.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Flying

“Her silence was worth more to her than a thousand words. In that silence, she had peace and clarity. Except during the night, when her own jumbled thoughts would keep her awake.”

Cecelia Ahern book If You Could See Me Now

Source: If You Could See Me Now

Peace, Silence

“To me you are stardust sprinkled across a night sky, forever in my dreams, but out of my reach.”

Teresa Medeiros (1962) American writer

Source: Yours Until Dawn

Dreams

“Here I am
leaving you clues. I am singing now while Rome
burns. We are all just trying to be holy. My applejack,
my silent night, just mash your lips against me.
We are all going forward. None of us are going back.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Singing

“The circle of an empty day is brutal and at night it tightens around your neck like a noose.”

Elena Ferrante book The Days of Abandonment

Source: The Days of Abandonment

“Mr. Anderson:Well, maybe we all should call it a night. Congrats to the happy couples. Will there be wedding bells soon?

SnowGirl:Definitely. I mean, if you help a guy kill a dwarf, he should marry you.”

Alex Flinn book Beastly

Source: Beastly

Guy, Wedding, Help, Happiness

“The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering.”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel book Elements of the Philosophy of Right

Preface xxx
Variant: When philosophy paints its grey on grey, then has a shape of life grown old. By philosophy's grey on grey it cannot be rejuvenated but only understood. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.
As translated by T. M. Knox, (1952) 
Source: Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820/1821)
Context: Only one word more concerning the desire to teach the world what it ought to be. For such a purpose philosophy at least always comes too late. Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready. History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom. When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known. The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering.

“It's just been a long week, that's all."
"It's monday night, Jess."
"My point exactly.”

Scott Westerfeld book Touching Darkness

Source: Touching Darkness

“Down there the nights are bright and nobody believes in the Devil.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

“She is . . . the moon in my night sky. And that is the beginning, middle, and end of it. There is no more to be told than that, and never shall I speak of her again.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: The Shadows

“…"We were the pair. One too afraid to feel anything lest she lose control of her ironclad hold on her emotions, and the other so hungry to feel anything that she´d risk her free will for one night of fun."…”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Every Which Way But Dead

Feeling

“A swift carriage, of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can’t see--that’s my idea of happiness.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady

Idea, Horse, Happiness

“it'll be this kind of deep blue”she said. “The kind of color that somehow sucks your eyes and your ears and all your words —the color of a completely closed-in night”

Banana Yoshimoto book Asleep

Source: Asleep

Color

“Last night somebody broke into my apartment and replaced everything with exact duplicates… When I pointed it out to my roommate, he said, "Do I know you?”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“The human heart is like a night bird. Silently waiting for something, and when the time comes, it flies straight toward it.”

Haruki Murakami book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Bird, Time, Waiting, Heart

“Are you a lucky little lady in the City of Light? Or just another lost angel… City of Night?”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

Angels, Light

“He cried that night for all that he had lost, but he would say it taught him a valuable lesson: that holding on to things "will only break your heart.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Time Keeper

Heart

“All night, I talked to other people. I didn't look in his direction, but I always knew where he was. I was painfully aware of him. When he was nearby, my body hummed. When he was away, there was this dull ache. With him near, I felt everything.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

People

“No matter what kind of night you're having, morning always wins.”

Barbara Kingsolver Pigs in Heaven

Source: Pigs in Heaven

“One fine day, in the middle of the night, two dead boys got up to fight. Back to back they faced each other. They pulled out their swords and shot one another. One deaf cop, on the beat heard the noise, and came and shot the two dead boys.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Valiant

Boy, Fight, Dead

“O starry night, This is how I want to die”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

Source: The Complete Poems

“I was happy. I loved the night, I loved t so much it almost hurt. In the night everything seemed possible. I wasn't sleepy at all.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Asleep

Source: Asleep

Love, Hurt, Happiness

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) Welsh poet and writer

" Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night http://www.internal.org/view_poem.phtml?poemID=92" (1952) <br class="br">Source: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Age, Light, Rage

“They did not hear Grimble, as he lay dying, chant in the true voice of the Boreal Owl, in tones like chimes in the night, an ancient owl prayer”

Kathryn Lasky (1944) American children's writer

Source: The Capture

“Some nights are made for torture, or reflection, or the savoring of loneliness.”

Poppy Z. Brite (1967) Novelist, short story writer, food writer

Good Night, Loneliness

“I never married because there was no need. I have three pets at home which answer the same purpose as a husband. I have a dog which growls every morning, a parrot which swears all afternoon, and a cat that comes home late at night.”

Marie Corelli (1855–1924) British writer

Dogs, Home, Cats

“It began as research. I wrote of silences, of nights, I scribbled the indescribable. I tied down the vertigo.”

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet

Silence

“Yet, as only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you'll live through the night.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

"New York at 6:30 P.M.", Esquire (November 1964)
Context: There is no such hour on the present clock as 6:30, New York time. Yet, as only New Yorkers know, if you can get through the twilight, you'll live through the night.

“Does it matter how long they were together that night? To lovers, an hour can last a century. But even for lovers, every hour ends.”

Scott Snyder (1976) American writer

Source: American Vampire, Vol. 1

Lovers

“My handsome Knight of Night came over to me and kissed me softly on the cheek.”

Ellen Schreiber (1967) American writer

Source: Royal Blood

Kiss

“He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Light

“I lived for the night, because I could go over to your house. It was the only thing that kept me going. You were the only thing, actually. It was… you.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover at Last

Housing

“Life begins at night”

Charlaine Harris book Dead Until Dark

Source: Dead Until Dark

Life

“Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day's chalking.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Source: The Alphabet of Grace (1970)

Life, Forgiveness, Sleep

“I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner (2003)

Pain, Forgiveness

“No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Jonathan Harker
Source: Dracula (1897)

Suffering, Heart

“Somewhere in him, a shadow turned mournfully over. You had to run with a night like this so the sadness could not hurt”

Ray Bradbury book Something Wicked This Way Comes

Source: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Sadness, Hurt

“We walked along the river with the words streaming behind us like ribbons in the night.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees (2002)

“This is what one thirsts for, I realize, after the smallness of the day, of work, of details, of intimacy - even of communication, one thirsts for the magnitude and universality of a night full of stars, pouring into one like a fresh tide.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea

Source: Gift from the Sea

Star, Communication, Universe

“Because that was the night I knew I loved you. That I’d really and truly fallen in love.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me

Source: The Best of Me

Love

“At night, here in the library, the ghosts have voices.”

Alberto Manguel (1948) writer

Source: The Library at Night

“I’m so tired… I was up all night trying to round off infinity.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“To be angry once in a while is really good fun, because it makes others so miserable. But to be angry morning, noon and night, as I am, grows monotonous and prevents my gaining any other pleasure in life.”

L. Frank Baum book The Emerald City of Oz

Source: The Emerald City of Oz

Life, Pleasure

“Listen to them — children of the night. What music they make.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Dracula referring to the howling of the wolves to Jonathan Harker.
Dracula (1897)

Children, Music

“I like the fans’ sound at night. Do you? It’s like somebody big far away goes like: it’sOKit’sOKit’sOKit’sOK, over and over. From very far away.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

“Then why are you here?” Emma demanded. “Oh, is this one of those missed-connections things? We met the other night, you felt a spark? Sorry, but I don’t date trees.”

“I am not a tree.” Iarlath looked angry, his bark peeling slightly.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Tree

“The fact that everybody in the world dreams every night ties all mankind together.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Book of Dreams (1961) Foreword
As misquoted in Night and Day (1989) by Jack Maguire, p. 221; Maguire does not cite his source, so this widely quoted variant appears to be an erroneous paraphrase of this published statement. It is not a direct quote from some other statement by Kerouac.
Variant: All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together.

World, Dreams

“As if the night had said to me, ‘You are the night and the night alone understands you and enfolds you in its arms’ One with the shadows. Without nightmare. An inexplicable peace.”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Source: Interview with the Vampire

Peace, Understanding

“I sleep better knowing that a naked cork-eater is not sneaking around at night, stealing my underwear.”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: The Bermudez Triangle

Sleep

“Riggedy riggedy white
Come and spend the night
We'll play some games
Some wild some tame
Cause if you will, you might.

By, Laberge”

D.J. MacHale (1955) American television director and producer

Game

“Night falls over Machu Picchu to the sound of Abba's 'Dancing Queen'.”

Michael Palin (1943) British comedian, actor, writer and television presenter

Source: Full Circle

Dance

“its been a long night" "aren't they all?”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

“Truth has been relegated to subjectivity; beauty has been subjugated to the beholder; and as millions are idiotized night after night, a global commune has been constructed with the arts enjoying a totalitarian rule.”

Ravi Zacharias (1946) Indian philosopher

1990s
Source: [Can Man Live Without God, 1994, 9780849939433, 12]

Truth, Beauty, Art, Communication

“Some nights the sky wept stars that quickly floated and disappeared into the darkness before our wishes could meet them.”

Ishmael Beah book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Source: A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Star

“It seems an insult to the night to speak of purpose and intent, when this common moment is so brimming full of blessed design tranquility. All things follow their course.”

Anne Rice (1941) American writer

Source: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

“Dad has brought me a cup of tea in bed this morning! I said, 'Vati, why are you waking me up in the middle of the night? Are you on fire?”

Louise Rennison (1951–2016) British writer

Source: Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants

Tea

“yes, Wagner and the storm intermix with the wine as nights like this run up my wrists and up into my head and back down into the gut”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense

Wine

“The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.”

Ray Bradbury book The Golden Apples of the Sun

The Murderer (1953)
The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953)
Context: Then I went in and shot the televisor, that insidious beast, that Medusa, which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little, but myself always going back, going back hoping and waiting until—bang!

People