Quotes from Diana Wynne Jones

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!

Oh confound that gray-and-scarlet suit! Sophie said. I refuse to believe that I was the one that got caught with it!

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.

I'm beginning to think I've led a much too sheltered life.

SHE LIKES MY SPARK!!!!--Calcifer

Beauty isn't made of sugar.

He started every entry with I got up . It meant, I hate this school. When he wrote I do not like porridge , that was actually true, but porridge was his code-word for Simon Silverson. Simon was porridge at breakfast, potatoes at lunch, and bread at tea. All the other other he hated had code-words too. Dan Smith was cornflakes, cabbage, and butter. Theresa was milk.

Tell me of this Wizard Howl of yours. Sophie's teeth chattered but she said proudly, He's the best wizard in Ingary or anywhere else. If he'd only had time, he would have defeated that djinn. And he's sly and selfish and vain as a peacock and cowardly, and you can't pin him down to anything.

don't spoil my learning process!

There is very seldom any true secret.

It's just as I thought, she said. I prefer you to every single one of these. Some of these look far too proud of themselves, and some look selfish and cruel. You are unassuming and kind. I intend to ask my father to marry me to you, instead of to the Prince in Ochinstan. Would you mind?

You've probably all had those kinds of dreams that are like usual life, except that a lot of things are not the same, and you seem to know the future in them. Well, this is because these other worlds where two things can happen spread out from our world like rainbows, and sort of flow into one another-

Go and catch a falling star, Get with child a mandrake root, Tell me where all past years are, Or who cleft the Devil's foot. Teach me to hear the mermaids singing, Or to keep off envy's stinging, And find What wind Serves to advance an honest mind. Decide what this is about Write a second verse yourself

I'm going to bed, where I may die.

When have you looked? said Sophie. Oh, how your ears flap and your long nose twitches, Howl croaked.

She's not stupid. She just never lets her mind out.

Doras II was a somewhat absentminded king, It is said, when Death came to summon him, Doras granted Death the usual formal audience and then dismissed him from his presence. Death was too embarrassed to return until many years later- Ka'a Orto'o, Gnomic Utterances

Of course you hate getting angry!" she retorted. "You don't like anything unpleasant, do you? You're a slitherer-outer, that's what you are! You slither away from anything you don't like!

I don't think I will get married," Polly said as she stood up. "I'm going to train to be a hero instead.

If you're thinking of calling on that Mrs. Pentstemmon, you can save yourself the trouble. The old biddy's dead. Dead? said Sophie. She had a silly impulse to add, But she was alive an hour ago! And she stopped herself, because death is like that: people are alive until they die.

You have an instinct, Sophie, that's how, said Howl. Nothing is safe from you. If I were to court a girl who lived on an iceberg in the middle of the ocean, sooner or later—probably sooner—I'd look up to see you swooping overhead on a broomstick. In fact, by now I'd be disappointed in you if I didn't see you.

Busy old fool, unruly Sophie

But whoever heard of enchanted bacon anyway?

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.