Inkheart Literature and Writing Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

"All books are in safe hands with me," replied Elinor, sounding cross. "You know that. They're my children, my inky children, and I look after them well. I keep the sunlight away from their pages, I dust them and protect them from hungry bookworms and grubby human fingers." (5.4)

Elinor doesn't just love books, she really loves books. She goes out of her way to maintain an ideal environment for them (no sunlight, very little dust, no oils from human fingers), and she even goes so far as to consider them her children. So it sure seems like leaving a book you'd want protected with her would be a good idea.

Quote #5

His thoughts couldn't be read on his brow in the same way as she could read Mo's. Dustfinger's face was a closed book, and Meggie had the feeling that if anyone tried reading it he would rap their knuckles. (5.43)

Books are so important in this book that characters are compared to them. In this case, Meggie thinks of Mo's face as an open book, or something she can easily read and interpret. But Dustfinger's face is different: it's like a closed book, giving no clues to what lies inside. If your face was like a book, what would it reveal? Are some people's faces maybe more like TVs or smartphones in terms of what they reveal?

Quote #6

"And as for this book," said Capricorn, looking at Inkheart with as much dislike as if it had bitten his pale fingers, "this extremely tedious, stupid, and extraordinarily long-winded book, I can assure you I have no intention of ever again letting myself be spellbound by its story." (17.47)

So Capricorn's not a fan of the book he came from. We get that. He finds its magical characters like fairies and trolls dumb and annoying, and he finds its people boring. It seems like that's all a matter of perspective, though—we know that Meggie's mom enjoyed being read to from Inkheart, and that Dustfinger longs to be back inside its pages. Maybe a lot of books are multifaceted enough that some people will get something out of them and enjoy them even while others think they're just meh.