Quotes from Diana Wynne Jones

Mr. Lynn gave her one of his considering looks. People are strange, he said. Usually they're much stranger than you think. Start from there and you'll never be unpleasantly surprised. Do you fancy doughnuts?

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.

You go and find who you really are, and don't let anyone stop you.

Jamal stared at the dog in his arms. Why I am I holding a dog full of angels?

Settle for what you can get, but first ask for the World. - Ka'a Ort'o, Gnomic Utterances, Civ

I can't wear thethe ! I want my thtwipey oneth !

Oh! Polly thought. Why aren't all girls locked up by law the year they turn fifteen? They do such stupid things!

When I say narrative, I do not mean simply the plot, I mean considerably more. Plots and their shapes--the bare outlines of stories--were something I know J.R.R. Tolkien himself was interested in. When I was an undergraduate, I went to a course of lectures he gave on the subject--at least, I think that was the subject, because Tolkien was all but inaudible. He evidently hated lecturing, and I suspect he also hated giving his thoughts away.

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.

Howl's very fickle," said Calcifer. "He's only interested until the girl falls in love with him. Then he can't be bothered with her.

Every man in Ingary is scared stiff of her. You ought to know how that feels, Sophie dear.

It was time for a strong-minded woman to take charge. Abdullah was quite glad that Sophie was one.

She stared at the King. The King stared back. It was a disaster.

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.

I'm not being nosy!" Sophie protested. "That room—!" "Yes, you are nosy," said Howl. "You're a dreadfully nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman. Control yourself. You're victimizing us all.

Sophie's experience told her that tantrums are seldom about the thing they appear to be about.

I've seen golems. They don't behave like a real person.

Mother knows you don't have to be unkind to someone in order to exploit them.

Polly finished her huge narrative during the summer term. The day after she had finished it, she went round with the oddest mixture of feelings, pride at having got it done, sick of the sight of it and glad it was over, and completely lost without it.

There are no rules. Only principles and natural laws.

All I did was ask you for a role-playing game. You never warned me I'd be pitched into it for real! And I asked you for hobbits on a grail quest, and not one hobbit have I seen!

Tienes un instinto especial, Sophie —continuó Howl—. Contigo nada está a salvo. Si decidiera cortejar a una doncella que viviera en un iceberg en el medio del océano, antes o después, probablemente antes, levantaría la vista y te vería volando por allí en una escoba. De hecho, me llevaría una decepción si no fuera así.

For answer, Calcifer stretched out a blue arm-shaped flame divided into green fingerlike flames at the end. It was not very long, nor did it look strong. "See? I can almost reach the hearth," he said proudly.

If you were able to hear lime juice, it would sound like violins.