The Unknown Quotes
by Riley Sager
These quotes from The Unknown pull together the different voices that make Riley Sager's novel so easy to get lost in. You'll find sharp dialogue, atmospheric narration, and intimate inner monologue. Some lines arrive with a jolt. Others creep up on you. They all share a sense of unease.
Part of what makes the book quotable is how casually it moves between wit, dread, and vulnerability. Characters say things you want to repeat. Their private thoughts feel uncomfortably familiar. The island and the mystery surrounding it give every line a little extra weight, so even a short sentence can stay with you long after the page is turned.
Top Quotes from The Unknown
“Less an island than the suggestion of one.”
Marin first sees the island she's headed to from the dock.
It is beautifully eerie and immediately establishes the island as something mysterious and intangible.
“Tell me a story. A ghost story. Something scary. Something... dreadful.”
— Ronan
Ronan asks Marin to prove her imagination during the audition.
It is a haunting invitation that shifts the audition into something personal and dark.
“It's like having a picnic in a graveyard. Sure, you could do it, but why would you want to?”
— Marin
Marin thinks about spending a week on the island where five women vanished.
The metaphor makes her dread concrete and relatable, turning a vague unease into a sharp, memorable image.
“I'd instantly be branded “difficult,” a label that never affects men but has destroyed the careers of too many women to name.”
— Marin
Marin considers the consequences of refusing to sign the studio's NDA after arriving on New Avalon.
It names a real double standard with bitter economy, and the observation lands with uncomfortable recognition.
“I've possessed the Gift for a very long time. More accurately, the Gift possesses me, for I’ve never had control over it and doubt I ever will, despite what Mrs. Semple says.”
— Daisy Rue
In her diary, Daisy describes the strange ability she has carried since her mother died.
It gives Daisy her own haunting voice and encapsulates the novel's central idea that a gift can feel like a curse.
“And yet sometimes I think it was real. It felt real, even as I recited the mantra that had been taught to me. You're not real. You don't exist. Please be gone.”
— Marin
Violet asks whether the ghost story Marin told at her audition was true, and Marin revisits the childhood memory behind it.
This is the emotional core of Marin’s past, balancing doubt and trauma with a need to believe. The repeated mantra is eerie and heartbreaking.
“In that sudden and total blackness, I hear a voice. Speaking right into my ear. No, not speaking. Whispering. An insidious rasp of four words. “You will be last.””
During the séance, the candles blow out and the room goes pitch black, then the narrator hears a whisper in her ear.
It is a stark, intimate threat delivered in total darkness, turning the séance from spooky to genuinely dangerous.
Themes Behind the Quotes
One main theme is the struggle between who you are and who you are expected to be. The narrator feels watched, judged, and pressured to perform. Acting becomes more than a job. It becomes a way of surviving. At the same time, there is a strong desire to be truly seen and understood, not just discovered.
Another theme is the terrifying pull of the unexplained. The island feels like a place outside normal life, and the supernatural intrudes without warning. Fear comes from not knowing whether something is real, imagined, or deliberately hidden. Grief and family history also linger throughout, shaping every choice and making the past feel dangerously alive.
Quotes by Chapter
Chapter One
“With this role, I don’t want any of that. I want someone new. A discovery.”
— Ronan
Ronan explains to Marin why he chose to cast an unknown actress.
It captures the dream of being seen as special and chosen, making the moment a turning point for Marin.
“Because I was their sole focus, which was great when I was little, torture when it became clear I wasn’t the daughter they wanted or expected.”
— Marin
Marin tells Ronan about her parents during the audition.
It reveals the loneliness underneath her ambition and makes her deeply relatable.
Chapter Two
“Because the last traces of five women were found in its branches, the oak also serves as a kind of final resting place. A grave for those without one.”
— Marin
Marin stares at the split oak tree where the vanished women's dresses were discovered.
It transforms the tree into a haunting memorial, and the final short sentence carries a solemn, elegiac weight.
“The way he looks at me makes it clear he senses my hesitation and even seems to understand it. But instead of reassurance, Pete simply shrugs. The choice is mine alone.”
— Marin
Marin hesitates on the boat before stepping onto the dock at New Avalon.
It captures the isolating moment of a life-changing decision, when no one else can make the choice for you.
Chapter Three
“Because there should be a place for people like you. I’m all too happy to provide it.”
— Mrs. Semple
In Daisy's diary, she remembers asking Mrs. Semple why the island costs nothing and receives this answer.
The line is both generous and quietly ominous, foreshadowing the island's hold on the women who come to it.
“Good-bye, one hundred grand. Good-bye, SAG card. Good-bye, any hope of ever booking another acting job again.”
— Marin
After the cast list and title page reveal that Daisy is the main character, Marin panics about failing.
It turns Marin's sudden fear of failure into a rueful refrain, making her underdog stakes vivid and immediate.
“I've spent every summer for the past sixty years on this island. It was a retreat, built by my father. I’ve had many happy times on New Avalon, and I know you will, too.”
— Mrs. Semple
Mrs. Semple reassures Daisy as they arrive on New Avalon.
Her certainty undercuts the island’s sunny surface, making the dread feel more real.
Chapter Four
“Not because the script is bad. On the contrary, it's good. Very good. Nausea-inducingly good.”
— Marin
Marin stands in the woods after the table read, trying to calm herself while thinking about the script.
The escalating rhythm and the phrase “Nausea-inducingly good” capture the terror of a career-making opportunity.
“I'm too present in my own skin—not to mention my own roiling thoughts—to pretend to be anyone other than myself.”
— Marin
Marin closes her eyes and tries to become Daisy, but her anxiety keeps her inescapably herself.
It perfectly expresses the actor's core paradox: self-awareness is both the tool and the obstacle to transformation.
“What hell did the Semple family think was in these woods?”
— Marin
Marin discovers hex signs carved into every tree bordering the village, forming a wall of symbols around the island's center.
The question condenses the novel's dread into a single eerie image, making the island feel actively haunted.
“Let your vulnerability be Daisy's vulnerability. Let your fear be hers.”
— Ronan
Ronan tells Marin how to channel her nerves into her performance.
It is a poetic acting note that also foreshadows how the boundary between Marin and Daisy is dissolving.
Chapter Five
“Cursed is more like it. All that money made at the expense of human lives. It weighs on you. It certainly did on my father.”
— Mrs. Semple
Mrs. Semple responds after Daisy calls her lucky to have inherited her father's fortune.
It crystallizes the moral weight of a fortune built on death. The word 'cursed' turns inherited wealth into a haunting.
“They speak to me with regularity, often arriving when I least want them to and always without warning.”
— Daisy
Daisy explains her gift of hearing the dead to the other women by the lake.
It conveys the intrusion and loneliness of her ability. The helplessness in 'always without warning' makes the gift feel like a burden.
“It felt like the kind of woods in which you could get lost and never, ever find your way out, even though it was impossible to get lost on an island this size.”
— Daisy
Daisy is walking through a dark forest on the island and feels an overwhelming sense of dread.
It captures how fear can defy logic. The paradox of being unable to get lost on an island makes the dread even more unsettling.
“I would have given away all the money in the world to rid him of such madness.”
— Mrs. Semple
Mrs. Semple tells Daisy about her father's madness after he was haunted by the men killed by his cannons.
It shows that love outweighs inherited wealth. The line makes grief and guilt deeply human.
Chapter Six
“And for the record, the next time you get asked something tawdry and inappropriate, the proper response is to smile coyly and say, ‘No comment.’ You always want to keep them guessing.”
— Violet
After asking Marin if she slept with Ronan, Violet tells her how to field indelicate questions in the future.
It is witty, worldly advice that reveals Violet's command of Hollywood gamesmanship. The coy 'no comment' line is memorable and quotable in any context.
“Those with a plan grab that brass ring and refuse to let go. Those without one usually drop it and never get another chance.”
— Violet
Violet warns Marin that her career is about to take off and that she must decide what she really wants.
The brass-ring metaphor sharpens the high stakes of ambition into one vivid image. It captures both opportunity and the fear of losing it.
“I remember my first movie. I was utterly terrified I'd make the wrong decision. And I did. Many times. But they were learning experiences. All of them. And eventually I learned to just trust my gut and my heart.”
— Violet
Violet reassures Marin about being a newcomer by sharing the fear and mistakes of her own first film.
It humanizes a Hollywood legend, making failure and doubt feel like necessary steps. The final line is a tender, practical reminder to trust yourself.
Chapter Seven
“Maybe it's the gin, but I at first think it's the butterflies that are screaming, begging to be freed from their glass boxes.”
— Marin
In the dim parlor, the narrator stares at framed dead butterflies and briefly imagines they are screaming to escape.
It turns a quiet gothic detail into a jolt of dread, showing how unease bends the mind toward the grotesque.
“This can't be happening, I think. This can’t be real.”
— Marin
After the chair lurches forward during the séance, before the fishing line is discovered.
The short, fractured thought captures the exact instant disbelief gives way to genuine fear.
“Tiny, almost imperceptible muscle movements guide the planchette to where the group subconsciously wants it to go.”
— Brad
Brad explains why the drinking glass moved even though no one intentionally pushed it.
It offers a rational explanation for the séance while making the group's hidden intentions feel quietly unsettling.
“I didn't sign up for this middle school sleepover bullshit.”
— Heather
Heather rejects the staged séance after Brad and Ronan admit the tricks.
It cuts through the theatrical tension with blunt, relatable frustration.
Chapter Eight
“There's no way any of them could know her name, even if they all saw my audition tape. Not once did I say it out loud. I only referred to her as “my sister,” never “Molly.” Yet seeing the name spelled out like that sends a wave of exhaustion crashing over me.”
The glass spells Molly, the narrator's sister, whose name she never said aloud.
It dramatizes the horror of an impossible secret being known, and the narrator's physical collapse as her skepticism fails.