Diana Wynne Jones Quotes

91 Sourced Quotes

Chrestomanci smiled and swept out of the room like a very long procession of one person.

Diana Wynne Jones
It does seem that a fantasy, working out in its own terms, stretching you beyond the normal concerns of your own life, gains you a peculiar charge of energy which inexplicably enriches you. At least, this is my ideal of a fantasy, and I am always trying to write it.

Diana Wynne Jones
Please, your story, or I shall offend the dignitaries of my kingdom by yawning at holy things.

Diana Wynne Jones
Then watch out. I warn you!" "That is very considerate of you," said Chrestomanci. "I like to be warned.

Diana Wynne Jones
People may wonder how Mitt came to join in the Holand Sea Festival, carrying a bomb, and what he thought he was doing. Mitt wondered himself by the end.

Diana Wynne Jones
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. Are you off to the iceberg today? Sophie retorted.

Diana Wynne Jones
He scarcely saw his parents. When Christopher was small, he was terrified that he would meet Papa out walking in the Park one day and not recognize him.

Diana Wynne Jones
"So you'll be wanting all these hydrangeas chopped down, then?"
"Whatever for?" Charmain said.
"I like to chop things down," the kobold explained. "Chief pleasure of gardening."

Diana Wynne Jones
Pretending was like that. Things seemed to make themselves up, once you got going.

Diana Wynne Jones
He picked up the skull and knocked an onion ring out of its eye socket. "I see Sophie has been busy again. Couldn't you have restrained her, my friend?" The skull yattered its teeth at him. Howl put it down rather hastily.

Diana Wynne Jones
Pray use both cats as sponges if it pleases you, infatuated infantryman.

Diana Wynne Jones
"Curse those two time-ghosts!" he almost shrieked. "They made me quite sure you were the Time Lady! But you're not, are you? I could tell you were a real Twenty Century person with every word you said. Mickey Mouse!" he yelled.

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

Diana Wynne Jones
Look. Survey. Inspect. My hair is ruined! I look like a pan of bacon and eggs!

Diana Wynne Jones
"Oh, thank goodness!" he babbled. "I didn't mean it - at least I did, but I don't mean it now, not any more!" He flung one arm around Yam and twisted the other into Mordion's rolled cloak. "They came. They rustled. Don't let them!"

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

Diana Wynne Jones
If I give you a hint and tell you it's a hint, it will be information.

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

Diana Wynne Jones
To love someone enough to let them go, you had to let them go forever or you did not love them that much.

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!

Diana Wynne Jones
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
Howl's voice was presently heard shouting weakly, Help me, someone! I'm dying from neglect up here!

Diana Wynne Jones
It is quite a risk to spank a wizard for getting hysterical about his hair.

Diana Wynne Jones
In the land of Ingary where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of the three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.

Diana Wynne Jones
This is the mythosphere. It's made up of all the stories, theories and beliefs, legends, myths and hopes, that are generated here on Earth. As you can see, it's constantly growing and moving as people invent new tales to tell or find new things to believe. The older strands move out to become these spirals, where things tend to become quite crude and dangerous. They've hardened off, you see.

Diana Wynne Jones
"But she's too big!" the anguished man said, still glaring at Vivian. "This girl is not the right size!"
…
"She was six when she went away, Father," Jonathan said. He did not seem in the least alarmed. "That was nearly six years ago. Think how much I've changed since then."
"So you have," said this alarming man, turning his glare on Jonathan as if he did not think the change was for the better. "I see," he said. "She grew."

Diana Wynne Jones
Imagination doesn't just mean making things up. It means thinking things through, solving them, or hoping to do so, and being just distant enough to be able to laugh at things that are normally painful. Head teachers would call this escapism, but they would be entirely wrong. I would call fantasy the most serious, and the most useful, branch of writing there is. And this is why I don't, and never would, write Real Books.

Diana Wynne Jones
And it's a pity too that I've no right to open your letters. I hope you don't get many, or my conscience will give me no peace.

Diana Wynne Jones
It was very boring. Perhaps it was his job to be boring, Vivian thought, in which case he was very good at his job.

Diana Wynne Jones
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