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Diana Wynne Jones Quotes | Quotes said by Diana Wynne Jones

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #1

    ...and said grace in Welsh. It was all rolling, thundering language.


  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #2

    ...if the spell was off, I’d have my heart eaten before I could turn around.”
    “Don’t you want your heart eaten?” asked the fire. [...]
    “Naturally I don’t,” Sophie answered.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #3

    A book for children, like the myths and folktales that tend to slide into it, is really a blueprint for dealing with life. For that reason, it might have a happy ending, because nobody ever solved a problem while believing it was hopeless. It might put the aims and the solution unrealistically high – in the same way that folktales tend to be about kings and queens – but this is because it is better to aim for the moon and get halfway there than just to aim for the roof and get halfway upstairs.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #4

    After that, all the while Millie was eating the pudding... we both tore Christopher's character to shreds. It was wonderful fun.... He drove everyone mad in Chrestomanci Castle by insisting on silk shirts and exactly the right kind of pajamas. 'And he could get them right anyway by magic,' Millie told me, 'if he wasn't too lazy to learn how.... But the thing that really annoys me is the way he never bothers to learn a person's name. If a person isn't important to him, he always forgets their name.'
    When Millie said this, I realized that Christopher had never once forgotten my name...

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #5

    After that, he tried to go upstairs through the broom cupboard, and then the yard. This seemed to puzzle him a little. But finally he discovered the stairs, all except the bottom on, and fell up them on his face. The whole castle shook.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #6

    After this, Boy became very curious about the mansion where the clothes and the food came from. He made me describe everything. Then he asked Good Thing 'Are there books in this mansion, too?'
    'And pictures and jewels,' Good Thing said through me. 'What does Master wish me to fetch? There is a golden harp, a musical box like a bird, a—'
    'Just books,' said Boy. 'I need to learn. I'm still so ignorant.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #7

    And indeed if you think you're a genius at something what you achieve is very much according to your expectations; if you think you're no good, you're not going to get anywhere.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #8

    And suddenly, as if her head had cleared, she was quite sure that wonderful things did indeed exist. Even if they’re only in my own mind, she thought, they’re there and worth fighting for. I mustn’t give in.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #9

    And, suddenly, as if her head cleared, she was quite sure that wonderful things did indeed exist. Even if they're only in my own mind, she thought, they're there and worth fighting for.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #10

    Annoyed?” said Sophie. “Why should I be annoyed? Someone only filled the castle with rotten aspic, and deafened everyone in Porthaven, and scared Calcifer to a cinder, and broke a few hundred hearts. Why should that annoy me?

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #11

    As she turned left to the gateway, it occurred to her that swimming was only one of a very large number of things she had no idea what to do. Peter had been right to object to her ignorance. It's not that I'm lazy, she explained to Waif as they arrived in what seemed to be stables, or stupid. I've just not bothered to look round the edges of Mother's way of doing things, you see.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #12

    Beauty isn't made of sugar.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #13

    Before long, everyone was giving him answers, and feeling a little superior, because it was really remarkable the number of things Chrestomanci seemed not to know. He had heard of Hitler, though he asked Brian to refresh his memory about him, but he had only the haziest notion about Gandhi or Einstein, and he had never heard of Walt Disney or reggae.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #14

    But I discovered that people like me -- they do, you know, if you like them -- and then it was all right.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #15

    But most dragons seem to have interesting personalities--besides probably having quite good reasons for what they do, if only one could understand them

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #16

    Charles realized that if he were going to apologize to Chrestomanci, he had better do it at once. He turned around to say it. But the folds had already rippled flat and nothing was the same anymore....

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #17

    City of Wizards is normally quite a GOOD thing, since only Good WIZARDS seem able to live together. . . .There have been cities of EVIL Wizards in the past. You will occasionally come across the sites of these, reduced to a glassy slag during the ultimate disagreement.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #18

    Controller Borasus sighed with relief. Libraries were not places of danger. It had to be a hoax.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #19

    f you take myth and folklore, and these things that speak in symbols, they can be interpreted in so many ways that although the actual image is clear enough, the interpretation is infinitely blurred, a sort of enormous rainbow of every possible colour you could imagine.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #20

    Female Mercenary. This will be a companion on your Tour. She is usually tall, thin and wiry, silent, and neurotic. Sex scares her. This is because she either came from a nunnery or was raped as a child. Or both. Somehow this inspired her to become a mercenary and she is very good at her job. You can rely on her absolutely in a fight. She can usually kill two people at once while guarding your back in between. The rest of the time, she will irritate you with lots of punctilious weapons cleaning and a perpetual insistence that a proper watch be kept. Mostly, she will have no magic talents, but sometimes, in an emergency, she will come up with a gift or vision. You will end up grudgingly admiring her.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #21

    Happiness isn't a thing. You can't go out and get it like a cup of tea. It's the way you feel about things.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #22

    He held out his hand to Sophie, just like Mrs. Pentstemmon, but a little less royally. Sophie levered herself up, wondering if she was meant to kiss this hand or not. But since she felt more like raising her stick and beating the King over the head with it, she shook the King's hand and gave a creaking little curtsy.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #23

    Horses are of a breed unique to Fantasyland. They are capable of galloping full-tilt all day without a rest. Sometimes they do not require food or water. They never cast shoes, go lame or put their hooves down holes, except when the Management deems it necessary, as when the forces of the Dark Lord are only half an hour behind. They never otherwise stumble. Nor do they ever make life difficult for Tourists by biting or kicking their riders or one another. They never resist being mounted or blow out so that their girths slip, or do any of the other things that make horses so chancy in this world. For instance, they never shy and seldom whinny or demand sugar at inopportune moments. But for some reason you cannot hold a conversation while riding them. If you want to say anything to another Tourist (or vice versa), both of you will have to rein to a stop and stand staring out over a valley while you talk. Apart from this inexplicable quirk, horses can be used just like bicycles, and usually are. Much research into how these exemplary animals come to exist has resulted in the following: no mare ever comes into season on the Tour and no stallion ever shows an interest in a mare; and few horses are described as geldings. It therefore seems probable that they breed by pollination. This theory seems to account for everything, since it is clear that the creatures do behave more like vegetables than mammals. Nomads appears to have a monopoly on horse-breeding. They alone possess the secret of how to pollinate them.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #24

    Howl pointed a shaky hand up toward the canopy of his bed. “That’s why I love spiders. ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try, again.’ I keep trying,” he said with great sadness. “But I brought it on myself by making a bargain some years ago, and I know I shall never be able to love anyone properly now.”
    The water running out of Howl’s eyes was definitely tears now.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #25

    I am a believer in free will. If my dog chooses to hate the whole human race except myself, it must be free to do so.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #26

    I am a total zombie just after I wake up. It takes me half an hour even to get my eyes open. Ask anyone who knows me. I can't see; I can't talk properly; I can't do anything without help. The only think I can do properly is think. And I know how to exploit my condition. I've had years of practice.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #27

    I can't abide people who go soft over animals and then cheat every human they come across!

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #28

    I feel ill, [Howl] announced. I'm going to bed, where I may die.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #29

    I mean one of the things about being alone is that you've no people to define yourself off, I mean, people are like all-round mirrors, because let's face it, we don't often see ourselves all round in a mirror anyway, do we.

  • Diana Wynne Jones Quote #30

    I only want to catch you,” Michael explained. “I won’t hurt you.”
    “No! No!” the star crackled desperately. “That’s wrong! I’m supposed to die!”
    “But I could save you if you’d let me catch you,” Michael told it gently.
    “No!” cried the star. “I’d rather die!

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