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This is an Out of universe article about the quotes Cornelia Funke used in the very beginning of each chapter within the third and last book of the trilogy. For In-universe notable quotes from the book, see the chapter sections of the book page, or visit the character pages individually to check notable quotes by them.

The list of quotes used in the beginning of every Inkdeath chapter.

Chapters 1-5[]

  • Ch. 1: Nothing But a Dog and a Sheet of Paper

Hark, the footsteps of the night
Fade in silence long.
Quiet chirps my reading light
Like a cricket’s song.

Books inviting us to read
On the bookshelves stand.
Piers for bridges that will lead
Into fairyland.

 
— Rilke, Sacrifice to the Lares, from Vigils III
  • Ch. 2: Only a Village

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding –
Riding – riding –
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

 
— Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman
  • Ch. 3: Written Silver

To what was sombre he was most disposed
When, in his bare room with its shutters closed,
High-ceilinged, blue, he read his story, thinking,
And in his mind's eye picturing forests sinking
Under the water, seeing ochre skies,
Fleshy flowers in woods of stars before his eyes...

 
— Arthur Rimbaud, The Poet at Seven Years Old
  • Ch. 4: Ink-Clothes

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I would shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.

 
— Billy Collins, On Turning Ten
  • Ch. 5: Fenoglio Feels Sorry for Himself
"What is this?" Harry asked shakily.
"This? This is called a Pensieve," said Dumbledore. "I sometimes find, and I'm sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind."
 
— J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Chapters 6-10[]

  • Ch. 6: Sad Ombra
My courtiers called me the happy prince, and happy indeed I was, if pleasure be happiness. So I lived and so I died. And now that I am dead they have set me high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery in the city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot choose but to weep.
 
— Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince
  • Ch. 7: A Dangerous Visit

The question, given God's omniscient view,
Is: Must what He foresees perforce come true?
Or is free choice of action granted me
To do a thing or else to let it be?

 
— Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (modernized)
  • Ch. 8: Roxane’s Pain
"Hope," said Sleet bitterly. "I've learned to live without it."
 
— Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell, Midnight Over Sanctaphrax
  • Ch. 9: A Giveaway
"You're gong to stop cruelty?" she asked. "And greediness, and all those things? I don't think you could. You're very clever, but oh no, you couldn't do anything like that."
 
— Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan
  • Ch. 10: As If Nothing Had Happened

How cruel the earth, the willows shimmering,
The birches bending and sighing.
How cruel, how profoundly tender.

 
— Louise Glück, Lament

Chapters 11-15[]

  • Ch. 11: Sick with Longing

I lost a world the other day.
Has anybody found?
You'll know it by the row of stars
Around its forehead bound.

A rich man might not notice it;
Yet to my frugal eye
Of more esteem than ducats
Oh, find it, sir, for me!

 
— Emily Dickinson, Collected Poems
  • Ch. 12: Back in the Service of Orpheus

Come close and consider the words.
With a plain face hiding thousands of other faces
and with no interest in your response,
whether weak or strong,
each word asks:
Did you bring the key?

 
— Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Looking for Poetry
  • Ch. 13: A Knife through the Heart
So far as he was concerned, as yet, there might never have been such a thing as a single particle of sorrow on the gay, sweet surface of the dew-glittering world.
 
— T.H. White, The Once and Future King
  • Ch. 14: News from Ombra

And leafing through old books we sometimes find
A dark, oracular phrase is underlined.
You once were here, but in time out of mind.

 
— Rainer Maria Rilke, Improvisations from Capri in Winter III
  • Ch. 15: Loud Words, Soft Words

When you go, space closes over like water behind you,
Do not look back: there is nothing outside you,
Space is only time visible in a different way,
Places we love we can never leave.

 
— Ivan V. Lalic, Places We Love

Chapters 16-20[]

  • Ch. 16: The Piper's Offer
The moment comes when a character does or says something you haven't thought about. At that moment he's alive and you leave it to him.
 
— Graham Greene, Advice to Writers
  • Ch. 17: The Wrong Fear

You wish for something you don't really want, the dream says.
Bad dream. Punish him. Chase him from the house.
Tie him to the horses, let him run with them.
Hang him. He deserves it.
Feed him mushrooms. Poisonous ones.

 
— Paavo Haavikko, The Trees Breathe Gently
  • Ch. 18: A Dangerous Ally

All day long he was docile, intelligent, good
Though sometimes changing to a darker mood
He seemed hypocritical, could tell bitter lies,
In the dark he saw dots of colour behind closed eyes,
Clenched his fists, put his tongue out at his elder brother...

 
— Arthur Rimbaud, The Poet at Seven Years Old
  • Ch. 19: Soldiers' Hands
Does the walker choose the path or the path the walker?
 
— Garth Nix, Sabriel
  • Ch. 20: A Sleepless Night

When despair for the world grows in me
And I wake in the night at the least sound
In fear of what my life and children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
Rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
Who do not tax their lives with forethought
Of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
Waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and I am free.

 
— Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things

Chapters 21-25[]

  • Ch. 21: Sharp Words
Oh, please! he felt his heart say to him. Oh, please, let me leave!
 
— John Irving, The Cider House Rules
  • Ch. 22: Taking the Bait
If Jim had been able to read he might now have noticed a remarkable circumstance...but the fact was that Jim couldn't read.
 
— Michael Ende, Jim Knopf and the Wild 13
  • Ch. 23: The Graveyard of the Strolling Players
He sits down on a hill and sings. They are songs of magic, strong enough to wake the dead to life. Softly, cautiously, his song rises, then it grows louder and more insistent, until the turf opens up and the cold earth cracks.
 
— Tor Age Bringsværd, The Wild Gods
  • Ch. 24: To Blame
Time, let me vanish. Then what we separate by our very own presence can come together.
 
— Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife
  • Ch. 25: The End and the Beginning
Here is a small fact. You are going to die.
 
— Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

Chapters 26-30[]

  • Ch. 26: A Familiar Voice
  • Ch. 27: Lost and Back Again
  • Ch. 28: A New Song

Bright hope arises from the dark
And makes the mighty tremble.
Princes can't fail to see his mark,
Nor can they now dissemble.
With hair like moleskin smooth and black,
And mask of bluejay feathers,
He vows wrongdoers to attack,
Strikes princes in all weathers.

 
Fenoglio, The Bluejay Songs
  • Ch. 29: A Visitor to Orpheus's Cellar
  • Ch. 30: Sootbird's Fire

Life's but a walking show, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

 
— William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Chapters 31-35[]

  • Ch. 31: The Bluejay's Answer
"I want to be of use," Homer began, but Dr. Larch wouldn't listen"Then you are not permitted to hide," said Larch. "You are not permitted to look away."
 
— John Irving, The Cider House Rules
  • Ch. 32: At Last
  • Ch. 33: Herbs for Her Ugliness
  • Ch. 34: Burnt Words
  • Ch. 35: The Next Verse

Chapters 36-40[]

  • Ch. 36: A Surprising Visitor
  • Ch. 37: Only a Magpie
  • Ch. 38: A Greeting to the Piper
  • Ch. 39: Stolen Children
  • Ch. 40: A New Cage
Westley closed his eyes. There was pain coming and he had to be ready for it. He had to prepare his brain, he had to get his mind controlled and safe from their efforts, so that they could not break him.
 
— William Goldman, The Princess Bride

Chapters 41-45[]

  • Ch. 41: Pictures from the Ashes
Dumbledore shook his head."Curiosity is not a sin," he said, "But we should exercise caution with our curiosity... yes, indeed..."
 
— J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  • Ch. 42: An Audience with the Adderhead
  • Ch. 43: Four Berries
  • Ch. 44: The Hand of Death
  • Ch. 45: Written and Unwritten

Chapters 46-50[]

  • Ch. 46: The Castle in the Lake
  • Ch. 47: The Role of Women
  • Ch. 48: Waiting
  • Ch. 49: Masters New and Old
  • Ch. 50: Lazy Old Man

Chapters 51-55[]

  • Ch. 51: The Wrong Helpers

We never know we go — when we are going
We jest and shut the door;
Fate following behind us blots it,
And we accost no more.

 
— Emily Dickinson, Collected Poems
  • Ch. 52: The Dead Men in the Forest
  • Ch. 53: Human Nests
  • Ch. 54: The White Whispering
  • Ch. 55: The Wrong Time

Chapters 56-60[]

  • Ch. 56: Fire and Darkness
What was Right, what was Wrong? What distinguished Doing from Not Doing? If I were to have my time again, the old King thought, i would bury myself in a monastery, for fear of a Doing which might lead to woe.
 
— T.H. White, The Once and Future King
  • Ch. 57: Too Late
"Rat," said the Mole, "I simply can't go and turn in, and go to sleep, and do nothing, even though there doesn't seem to be anything to be done."
 
— Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
  • Ch. 58: Help from Mountains Far Away
  • Ch. 59: The Bluejay's Angels
  • Ch. 60: Mother and Son

Chapters 61-65[]

  • Ch. 61: Clothed and Unclothed
  • Ch. 62: Black?
  • Ch. 63: Ah, Fenoglio!
  • Ch. 64: Light
  • Ch. 65: Made Visible

Chapters 66-70[]

  • Ch. 66: Love Disguised as Hate
  • Ch. 67: The Other Name
  • Ch. 68: Back
  • Ch. 69: The Adderhead's Bedchamber
  • Ch. 70: Burning Words

Chapters 71-75[]

  • Ch. 71: The Bookbinder
  • Ch. 72: So Many Tears
  • Ch. 73: The Night-Mare
  • Ch. 74: The Other Side
  • Ch. 75: The Book

Chapters 76-81[]

  • Ch. 76: White Night
  • Ch. 77: Over
  • Ch. 78: Staked on the Wrong Card
  • Ch. 79: Leaving
  • Ch. 80: Ombra
  • Ch. 81: Later


Cornelia Funk's Inkworld Trilogy
Inkheart book reference quotes radio play film film soundtrack game
Inkspell book reference quotes radio play - - -
Inkdeath book reference quotes radio play - - -
Other written works (not all by Funke) Other canon
Inkheart Movie: Novelization Cornelia Funke - The Official Website -
Inkheart Movie: Storybook MirrorWorld by Cornelia Funke App
Inkheart Movie: Reader, Farid's Story The Colour of Revenge
Cornelia Funke: Inkheart, Wild Chicks and Ghosthunters: the Fantastical Visual Worlds from the Early Children's Books to Reckless
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