"Magic is forgetting that something ever was other than as you willed it."
~ Katherine Arden
Read all great Katherine Arden quotes below ...
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Katherine Arden stands as a rising star in the realm of fantasy literature, captivating readers with her richly imagined worlds, compelling characters, and spellbinding storytelling. With a background in Russian literature and folklore, Arden brings a unique perspective to her work, infusing her novels with elements of history, mythology, and magic.
Born in Austin, Texas, Katherine Arden spent much of her childhood traveling between the United States and Europe, fostering a deep love for storytelling and adventure. She studied Russian and French literature at Middlebury College and later pursued a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Vermont.
Arden burst onto the literary scene with her debut novel, "The Bear and the Nightingale," the first installment in her critically acclaimed Winternight Trilogy. Set in medieval Russia, the novel follows the journey of a young woman named Vasya as she navigates the supernatural dangers lurking in the wilderness. Praised for its lush prose, atmospheric setting, and compelling characters, "The Bear and the Nightingale" quickly captured the hearts of readers and established Arden as a formidable talent in the fantasy genre.
Following the success of "The Bear and the Nightingale," Katherine Arden continued to enchant readers with the subsequent books in the trilogy: "The Girl in the Tower" and "The Winter of the Witch." Each installment builds upon the rich tapestry of Russian folklore and history, weaving together themes of bravery, sacrifice, and the power of storytelling.
Arden's writing is characterized by its lyrical beauty, immersive world-building, and deep reverence for folklore and mythology. Drawing inspiration from her studies of Russian literature and her own travels through the country, she creates vivid and atmospheric settings that transport readers to another time and place.
Readers are drawn to Katherine Arden's work for its evocative prose, intricate plots, and strong, independent heroines. Her novels offer a perfect blend of magic, adventure, and romance, inviting readers to lose themselves in the enchanting world she has created.
"The Bear and the Nightingale" remains Arden's most celebrated work to date, earning rave reviews from readers and critics alike. The trilogy has been translated into numerous languages and has garnered a devoted following around the world.
In addition to her literary accomplishments, Katherine Arden has also received recognition for her contributions to the genre. She has been nominated for several awards, including the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fantasy and the Locus Award for Best First Novel.
For those seeking an immersive and enchanting literary experience, Katherine Arden's books are a must-read. With their richly drawn characters, lush settings, and compelling narratives, they offer a journey into the heart of Russian folklore and mythology that is both mesmerizing and unforgettable.
As for what the future holds, fans will be delighted to know that Katherine Arden has a new standalone novel slated for release in the coming months. Titled "The Warm Hands of Ghosts," the book promises to deliver another gripping tale of magic and adventure that will captivate readers and leave them eagerly awaiting Arden's next literary offering.
Katherine Arden Best Quotes
“All my life,” she said, “I have been told ‘go’ and ‘come.’ I am told how I will live, and I am told how I must die. I must be a man’s servant and a mare for his pleasure, or I must hide myself behind walls and surrender my flesh to a cold, silent god. I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing. I would rather die tomorrow in the forest than live a hundred years of the life appointed me. Please. Please let me help you.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other; each way will have its bitter with its sweet.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Witch. The word drifted across his mind. We call such women so, because we have no other name.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Nothing changes, Vasya. Things are, or they are not. Magic is forgetting that something ever was other than as you willed it.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “Wild birds die in cages.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “There are no monsters in the world, and no saints. Only infinite shades woven into the same tapestry, light and dark. One man’s monster is another man’s beloved. The wise know that.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Think of me sometimes," he returned. "When the snowdrops have bloomed and the snow has melted.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “As I could, I loved you.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “I have plucked snowdrops at Midwinter, died at my own choosing, and wept for a nightingale. Now I am beyond prophecy.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “I did not know I was lonely, she thought, until I was no longer alone.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Love is for those who know the griefs of time, for it goes hand in hand with loss. An eternity, so burdened, would be a torment. And yet—” He broke off, drew breath. “Yet what else to call it, this terror and this joy?” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “It is a cruel task, to frighten people in God’s name.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “I carve things of wood because things made by effort are more real than things made by wishing.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “She bent forward to breathe into his ear: "Never give me orders." "Command me, then," he whispered back. The words went through her wine.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Sleep is cousin to death, Vasya. And both are mine.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “I do not understand “damned.” You are. And because you are, you can walk where you will, into peace, oblivion, or pits of fire, but you will always choose.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “But yes,” he said wearily. “As I could, I loved you. Now will you go? Live.” “I, too,” she said. “In a childish way, as girls love heroes that come in the night, I loved you.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “We who live forever can know no courage, nor do we love enough to give our lives.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “You cannot take vengeance on a whole people because of the doings of a few wicked men.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Magic is forgetting the world was ever other than as you willed it.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing. I would rather die tomorrow in the forest than live a hundred years of the life appointed me.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “He is full of desire. Desire and fear. He does not know what he desires, and he does not admit his fear. But he feels both, strong enough to strangle.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale 73 “Vasya felt cold despite the steam. “Why would I choose to die?” “It is easy to die,” replied the bannik. “Harder to live.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “Things are or they are not, Vasya,” he interrupted. “If you want something, it means you do not have it, it means that you do not believe it is there, which means it will never be there. The fire is or it is not. That which you call magic is simply not allowing the world to be other than as you will it.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “I do not half answers.' 'Stop asking half questions, then,' he said, and smiled with sudden charm.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “I gave everything for you, Vasilisa Petrovna.' 'Not everything,' said Vasya. 'Since clearly your pride is intact, as well as your illusions.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “The breath hitched in his throat. His hand caught hers, but he did not untangle her fingers. "Why are you here?" she asked him. For a moment she thought he would not answer, then he said, as though reluctant, "I heard you cry.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “His voice was snow at midnight.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “Now hear me. Before the end, you will pluck snowdrops at midwinter, die by your own choosing, and weep for a nightingale.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “You left me this mad girl, and I love her well. She is braver and wilder than any of my sons.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “Solovey will take me to the ends of the earth if I ask it. I am going into the world, Alyosha. I will be no one's bride, neither of man nor of God. I am going to Kiev and Sarai and Tsargrad, and I will look upon the sun on the sea.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “I’d rather my sons living, and my daughters safe, than a chance at glory for unborn descendants.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “It is not for men and women to presume what the Lord wishes. That way lies evil, when men put themselves too high, saying, I know what God wants, for it is also what I want.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “If you spend all your days bearing the burden of unforgotten wrongs you will only wound yourself.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “If I wanted to imprison someone until the end of days, would it not be best to use a prison that he has no desire to escape?” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Many people say ‘Better to die’ until the time comes to do it,” Morozko returned.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “There is no magic. Things are. Or they are not.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Who is to say, in the end, that the three guardians of Russia are not a witch, a frost-demon, and a chaos-spirit? I find it fitting.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “You are too attached to things as they are,” said Morozko, combing the mare’s withers. He glanced down idly. “You must allow things to be what best suits your purpose. And then they will.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “How? I am a demon and a nightmare; I die every spring, and I will live forever.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “If this is the last decision I can ever make, at least it is my decision. Let me go, Alyosha. I am not afraid.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “I have been running through the dark, trying to save all who have need of me. I have done good and I have done evil, but I am neither. I am only myself.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Mornings are wiser than evenings.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “He" —she stumbled, finished—"He has been a joy to me." And, drily, "Also a great source of frustration.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “With that sapphire, he bound your strength to him, but the magic did what he did not intend; it made him strong but also pulled him closer and closer to mortality, so that he was hungry for life, more than a man and less a demon. So that he loved you, and did not know what to do.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Only boys and fools think men are first in courage. We do not bear children.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “You were such a sweet child, when I first met you by this very tree,” remarked the Bear. “What happened?” His voice was mocking, but she could feel the tension in him when she began to undo the golden clasps. “What happened? Love, betrayal, and time,” said Vasya. “What happens to anyone who grows to understand you, Medved? Living happens.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Has the world run dry of warriors?' She asked. 'All out of brave lords? Are they sending out maidens these days to do the work of heroes?' 'There were no heroes,' said Vasya between her teeth. 'There was only me.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “The more one knows, the sooner one grows old,” Midnight returned cheerfully.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “It is time to put aside dreaming. Fairy tales are sweet on winter nights, nothing more.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “That love of maidens for monsters, that does not fade with time.” He looked weary. “But the rest—I did not count on that.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “I loved her, and a curse made me forget. But she came for me and broke the curse and now I must go.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Live,” she said. “You said you loved me. Live.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “I am a witch,” said Vasya. Blood was running down her hand now, spoiling her grip. “I have plucked snowdrops at Midwinter, died at my own choosing, and wept for a nightingale. Now I am beyond prophecy.” She caught his knife on the crosspiece of hers, hilt to hilt. “I have crossed three times nine realms to find you, my lord. And I find you at play, forgetful.” She felt him hesitate. Something deeper than memory ran through his eyes. It might have been fear. “Remember me,” said Vasya. “Once you bid me remember you.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “You shouldn’t have told them I was a girl. Then they might have believed that I was dangerous.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Close your eyes," he said into her ear. "Come with me." She did so, and suddenly she saw what he saw. She was the wind, the clouds gathering in the smoky sky, the thick snow of deep winter. She was nothing. She was everything. The power gathered somewhere in the space between them, between her flickers of awareness. There is no magic. Things are. Or they are not. She was beyond wanting anything. She didn't care whether she lived or died. She could only feel; the gathering storm, the breath of the wind.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “I did not know I was to be outdone by a little magic boy and his tricks,” he said. “I salute you, magician.” He swept her a bow from horseback. Vasya did not return the bow. “To small minds,” she told him, spine very straight, “any skill must look sorcery.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “The more one knows, the sooner one grows old,” snapped the domovaya” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Irina, for God’s sake, praying will not keep her warm. Make soup.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “Would you to meet him?” Vasya asked suddenly. “I?” Olga asked, sounding shocked. Then her lips firmed. “Yes. Even a girl in love with a devil needs someone to negotiate for her.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Am I a child? Always someone else must decide for me. But this I will decide for myself.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “But I think you should be careful, Batyushka, that God does not speak in the voice of your own wishing. We have never needed saving before.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “He picked her up and sank onto the warm oven-bench with her in his arms. He was gentle. His breath was the winter wind, but his flesh was warm, and his heart beat under her hand.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “I want Dmitrii's admiration. I want a victory. I even want power, over princes and chyerti. I am allowed to want things, winter-king.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Sasha looked at his sister. He had never thought of her as girlish, but the last trace of softness was gone. The quick brain, the strong limbs were there: fiercely, almost defiantly present, though concealed beneath her encumbering dress. She was more feminine than she had ever been, and less. Witch. The word drifted across his mind. We call such women so, because we have no other name.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “You might get to know characters in books, Ollie thought, but getting to know a human was an entirely different thing.” ― Katherine Arden, Small Spaces “You are not alone, he said, in a voice no one but she could hear. Remember.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Men make themselves afraid," the Bear told her, smiling. "Imagining is worse than anything they actually see.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “God be with you,' Sasha said, cautiously. 'I certainly hope not," returned Polunochnitsa.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “She is not afraid, Konstantin thought dourly. She does not fear God; she fears nothing. He saw it in her silences, her fey glance, the long hours she spent in the forest. In any case, no good Christian maid ever had eyes that, or walked with such grace in the dark.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “I will see the world beyond this forest, and I will not count the cost.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “It is going to end, Vasya thought. One day. This world of wonders, where steam in a bathhouse can be a creature that speaks prophecy. One day, there will be only bells and processions. The chyerti will be fog and memory and stirrings in the summer barley.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “That which you call magic is simply not allowing the world to be other than as you will it.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Why carve things of wood,” she asked him, “if you can make marvelous things of ice with only your hands?” He glanced up. “I carve things of wood because things made by effort are more real than things made by wishing.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “You cannot love and be immortal.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “She had survived the frost and the flame, had found a harbor, however brief. Perhaps that was all anyone could ask, in the world’s savage turning.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “She did not want to see hope in his eyes. She wanted him to be a monster. But monsters were for children.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “The mushroom-spirit was suddenly fierce. "He is not to kick over any of my mushrooms." "That depends," said the Bear pointedly. "If my brave mistress does not give me something better to do than run to and fro in the dark, I will happily kick over all your mushrooms.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “Nay, it is the coming storm. The first sign is fear. The second is always fire. Your people are afraid, and now the fires burn.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “What name would encompass a creature her?” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “There was a time, not long ago When flowers grew all year When days were long And nights star-strewn And men lived free from fear” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “She hated him. She dreamed about him. None of it mattered. Might as well hate the sky - or desire it - and she hated that worst of all.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Men are also wicked," Vasya returned passionately. "And good, and everything in between. Chyerti are, just as men are, just as the earth herself is. Chyerti are sometimes wise and sometimes foolish, sometimes good and sometimes cruel. God rules the next world, but what of this one? Men may seek salvation in heaven and also make offerings to their hearth-spirits, to keep their house safe from evil. Did not God make chyerti, as He made everything else in heaven and earth?” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “You don't waste October sunshine. Soon the old autumn sun would bed down in cloud blankets and there would be weeks of gray rain before it finally decided to snow.” ― Katherine Arden, Small Spaces “I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “But he shook her, lifted her chin so that she had to meet his eyes again, spoke into her ear, the voice of winter in this airless cellar, reminding her of her joys and her mistakes, her loves and her flaws, until she found herself back in her own skin, shaken but able to think. She realized how close she had come, in that dark treasure-room, with reality collapsing a rotten tree, to going mad.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “He picked up a twist of straw and began to rub her down. In the space of a blink, the twist of straw became a brush of boar’s hair. The mare stood with her ears flopping, loose-lipped with enjoyment. Vasya went nearer, fascinated. “Did you change the straw? Was that magic?” “As you see.” He went on with his grooming. “Can you tell me how you do it?” She came up beside him and peered eagerly at the brush in his hand. “You are too attached to things as they are,” said Morozko, combing the mare’s withers. He glanced down idly. “You must allow things to be what best suits your purpose. And then they will.” Vasya,” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “She is herself,” said Sasha. “Doom and blessing both, and it is for God to judge her.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “The more one knows, the sooner one grows old.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Unable to ride, he paced the winter earth, while clouds boiled up in the north and blew snow-flurries on them both. “She was supposed to go home,” he snarled to no one in particular. “She was supposed to tire of her folly, go home with her necklace, wear it, and tremble sometimes, at the memory of a frost-demon, in her impetuous youth. She was supposed to bear girl-children who might wear the necklace in turn. She was not supposed to—” Enchant you, finished the horse with some asperity, not raising her nose from the snow. Her tail lashed her flanks. Do not pretend otherwise. Or has she dragged you near enough to humanity that you have also become a hypocrite?” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “The living need you more than the dead. And they are harder to comfort.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “I want freedom," she said at the length, almost to herself. "But I also want a place and a purpose. I am not sure I can have either, let alone both. And I do not want to live a lie.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “The glutton cannot turn his mind to God,” he said dismissively. “But neither can the starving man.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “I believe in memory. I believe in remembering someone you love so well that it becomes kind of a ghost. You remember someone so hard that it feels they're in the next room, just around the corner, that they could walk in any minute.” ― Katherine Arden, Dead Voices “Learn?” he said then. Was that bitterness in his voice? “How? I am as I was made: unchanging. Long ago, men dreamed a sword into my hand. Gods diminish, but they do not change. Now try again.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Konstantin had never seen Vasya so. In the house, she was grave and wary, careless and charming by turn, all eyes and bones and soundless feet. But alone, under the sky, she was beautiful as a yearling filly, or a new-flown hawk” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “I have never seen Tsargrad, or angels, or heard the voice of God. But I think you should be careful, Batyushka, that God does not speak in the voice of your own wishing.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “Perhaps I am not so wise as you would have me, for all my years in this world. I do not know what you should choose. Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other; each way will have its bitter with its sweet.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “I go to church, Father,” she replied. “Anna Ivanovna is not my mother, nor is her madness my business. Just as my soul is not yours. And it seems to me we did very well before you came; for if we prayed less, we also wept less.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “You are immortal, and perhaps I seem small to you,” she said at last fiercely. “But my life is not your game.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “And yet, I will think of the future,” Vasya retorted. “To remind me that the present is not forever. One day I may see my brother Alyosha again, and my sister Irina. I might have a home of my own, a place and a purpose, a victory. What is the present without the future?” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “ It is for the best was on the tip of the priest's tongue. But he thought again of years, of childbearing and exhaustion. The wildness gone, the hawk's grace chained up... He swallowed. It is for the best. The wildness was sinful.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “Love is for those who know the griefs of time, for it goes hand in hand with loss. An eternity, so burdened, would be a torment.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “It was never your task to pick out the good from the wicked. Your task was to unite us. We are one people." The rage was gone from her face. Vasya stalked forward. "You could have told me" [...] "It is not something you can be told," said Polunochnitsa."It is something you must come to understand.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “That love of maidens for monsters, that does not fade with time.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Come in, Vasya,' he said. 'It is cold.' Could the snow-laden night speak, it might have spoken with that voice.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “I will be no one’s bride, neither of man nor of God.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “The cold embrace of the winter god is not for mortal maidens.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “To small minds,” she told him, spine very straight, “any skill must look sorcery.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “Before the end, you will pluck snowdrops at midwinter, die by your own choosing, and weep for a nightingale.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “Morozko was there, between one blink and the next. She hadn't put the men to sleep. He had. He was there, himself, real, in the treasure-room with her. Now the winter-king was turning pale eyes on her. She stared. It was really him. Pulled to her, somehow, as she remembered his power. As though drawing him to her was easier than calling down sleep herself. Summoned. She'd summoned the winter-king a stray spirit. The both realized it at the same time. The shock in his face mirrored the feeling in hers. For an instant, they were silent. Then he spoke. "A thunderstorm, Vasya?" he said, with effort.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “At his words, a bolt of longing tore through her, for blue skies and deep snow, for wild places and for silence, for his fire-lit house in the fir-grove, for his hands in the darkness.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “She looked a wild thing new-caught and just barely groomed into submission.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “You must allow things to be what best suits your purpose. And then they will.” ― Katherine Arden, The Bear and the Nightingale “His answer was not in words, but his hands, perhaps, spoke for him when his fingertips found the pulse behind her jaw. She did not move. His eyes were cold and still: pale stars to make her lost. “Vasya,” he said again, low and—almost ragged, into her ear. “Perhaps I am not so wise as you would have me, for all my years in this world. I do not know what you should choose. Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other; each way will have its bitter with its sweet.” ― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower “You're kind of grumpy most of the time, but when things get bad, you're the bravest. People can surprise you.” ― Katherine Arden, Small Spaces “You can't hide in your books forever. There are all kinds of people, and good things, and life, just waiting for you.” ― Katherine Arden, Small Spaces “The Bear laughed. “As it should be. Because that is the only way you can play for everything, when you do not fear to lose.” ― Katherine Arden, The Winter of the Witch “We were born together, we died together. I cannot live without you.” ― Katherine Arden, The Warm Hands of Ghosts