Charles de Lint Quotes

89 Sourced Quotes

There are few joys to compare with the telling of a well-told tale.

Charles de Lint
Remember the quiet wonders. The world has more need of them than it has for warriors. And this I will tell you as well: One cannot seek to uphold honor in a being that has none.

Charles de Lint
It's the questions we ask, the journey we take to get to where we are going that is more important than the actual answer. It's good to have mysteries. It reminds us that there's more to the world than just making do and having a bit of fun.

Charles de Lint
Witchery is merely a word for what we are all capable of — heightened nightsight, an empathy shared with the beasts, a utilization of the more obscure abilities of our minds. Nothing that science can't explain away. Wizardry is spells and enchantments. Fairy tales.

Charles de Lint
The family we choose for ourselves is more important than the one we were born into; that people have to earn our respect and trust, not have it handed to them simply because of genetics.

Charles de Lint
Often, he says, what we take from the spirit world is only a reflection of what lies inside ourselves.

Charles de Lint
It may sound trite, but using the weapons of the enemy, no matter how good one's intentions, makes one the enemy.

Charles de Lint
Sculptors, poets, painters, musicians-they're the traditional purveyors of Beauty. But it can as easily be created by a gardener, a farmer, a plumber, a careworker.

Charles de Lint
Beauty isn't what you see on TV or in magazine ads or even necessarily in art galleries. It's a lot deeper and a lot simpler than that. It's realizing the goodness of things, it's leaving the world a little better than it was before you got here. It's appreciating the inspiration of the world around you and trying to inspire others.

Charles de Lint
The trouble with advice is that it's usually something you don't want to hear.

Charles de Lint
The old gods and their magics did not dwindle away into murky memories of brownies and little fairies more at home in a Disney cartoon; rather, they changed. The coming of Christ and Christians actually freed them. They were no longer bound to people's expectations but could now become anything that they could imagine themselves to be. They are still here, walking among us. We just don't recognize them anymore.

Charles de Lint
You don't have to be Michelangelo to teach basic art, just as you don't have to be Shakespeare to be able to teach the correct use of language.

Charles de Lint
How hard would it be to ask children what they see in their heads? How big should the house be in comparison to the family standing in front of it? What is it about the anatomy of the people that doesn't look right? Then let them try it again. Teach them to learn how to see and ask questions.

Charles de Lint
You can take the woman outta the trash, but you can't take the trash out a the woman.

Charles de Lint
You wouldn't want any creative process to lose its sense of fun and adventure, but that doesn't mean you can't take it seriously as well.

Charles de Lint
Everything is the way it is because we've all agreed that's the way it is.

Charles de Lint
The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it.

Charles de Lint
It's easy to believe in magic when you're young. Anything you couldn't explain was magic then. It didn't matter if it was science or a fairy tale. Electricity and elves were both infinitely mysterious and equally possible - elves probably more so.

Charles de Lint
Everybody makes the same mistake. Fortune-telling doesn't reveal the future; it mirrors the present. It resonates against what your subconscious already knows and hauls it up out of the darkness so you can get a good look at it.

Charles de Lint
I was going through the motions of life, instead of really living, and there's no excuse for that. It's not something I'll let happen to me again.

Charles de Lint
Wisdom never comes to those who believe they have nothing left to learn.

Charles de Lint
That dichotomy between who she was and who she thought she should be was what really killed her.

Charles de Lint
Only fools think they're wise; the rest of us just muddle through as we can.

Charles de Lint
A long time ago a bunch of people reached a general consensus as to what's real and what's not and most of us have been going along with it ever since.

Charles de Lint
Children are the brightest treasures we bring forth into this world, but too large a percentage of the population continues to treat them as inconveniences and nuisances, when they're not treating them as possessions or toys.

Charles de Lint
There are people who take the heart out of you, and there are people who put it back.

Charles de Lint
Like legend and myth, magic fades when it is unused — hence all the old tales of elfin Kingdoms moving further and further away from our world, or that magical beings require our faith, our belief in their existence, to survive. … That is a lie. All they require is our recognition.

Charles de Lint
Don't start brooding about that, too," she says. "Everybody's got a piece of stranger inside them. It's what lets us surprise ourselves and keeps things interesting." -Lupita

Charles de Lint
The thing is … nothing's as easy as we'd like it to be. … And the real trouble comes from not knowing what we really want in the first place.

Charles de Lint
Compromise is necessary, Max agreed, so long as you never give up who you are. That isn't compromise; that's spiritual death. You have to remain true to yourself.

Charles de Lint