Daniel Handler Quotes

Miracles and magic pervade the things that I've written, but yet there are no miracles and there is no magic.

Life is never what it seems - and that’s the great thing about it

Things are always different from what they might be.

Life is not always what we think it is.

We all know a mirror reflects us, if you look in it. If you move, the reflection moves. If you project from a mirror, meaning it will project an image, it's nothing to do with you. The world seen by nobody.

Illusion, Temperament, Succession, Surface, Surprise, Reality, Subjectiveness,--these are the threads on the loom of time, these are the lords of life.

We are funny creatures. We don't see the stars as they are, so why do we love them? They are not small gold objects, but endless fire.

The thing we look forward to often comes to pass, but never precisely in the way we have imagined to ourselves.

People are disappointed that you aren't exactly who they thought you were, as opposed to somebody who's just walking around trying to get some laundry done.

I don't think things are ever exactly the way one expects, and I don't think things are ever the way one assumes they are at the moment. What I actually think is that one has no idea of what things are like, ever.

The first lesson a watcher learns is to separate truth from illusion. Because in the world of magics, it's the hardest thing to do.

Appearances do not deceive if there are enough of them.

If there's one thing I know, it's this - everybody thinks somebody else is having a better life.

Seeing is not believing - it is only seeing.

But if they don't exist, how can a man see them?

We hear things, but we can't always see them, or, even if we do see them, we're not sure that we're seeing correctly. Hence: Invisible.

Accidents are just from where you're looking; to the ego, it looks like it's miracles and accidents.

When we look at a rock what we are seeing is not the rock, but the effect of the rock upon us.

"Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will," she says. The sky is like a monochromatic contemporary painting, drawing me in with its illusion of depth, pulling me up. "Yeah, that's true," I say. But then after I think about it for a second, I add, "But then again, if you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all."

The fictional eye sees in, through, and around what is really there.

Often miracles are happening right in front of our eyes, but we think they should look different, so we miss them though they're right there.

Hope clouds observation.

Oftentimes what you see cancels out what you perceive.

I had been taught to look for monsters and devils and I found ordinary people.

I shall start at the beginning. Though of coarse, the beginning is never where you think it is.