Diana Wynne Jones quotes - page 5

Diana Wynne Jones was a British author best known for her fantasy novels for children and young adults. Her works, including the popular "Howl’s Moving Castle," are acclaimed for their imagination, wit, and inventive storytelling. She inspired generations of readers and writers with her unique worlds and memorable characters. Here are 144 of her quotes:

On the other hand, it is quite a risk to spank a wizard for getting hysterical about his hair.

Diana Wynne Jones

She was one of those who could talk and talk and talk. Gair listened to her harsh voice - "Just like a duck," Ayna described it - and hoped she would lose the argument. But Adara once said Kasta had never lost an argument in her life. She just talked everyone insensible.

Diana Wynne Jones

Don't you even feel how marvellous it is to have talked to one of the Little People?" I said. "No, not as the main thing," Grundo grunted. "If you think like that, then you're treating him like something in a museum, not as a person.

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

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

Vivian stared. Never had she seen a boy with such long hair! In fact, she had a vague notion that boys were born with their hair short back and sides and only girls had hair that grew long.

Diana Wynne Jones

I have been with the Court all my life, travelling with the King's Progress. I didn't know how to go on. I sat and stared at this sentence, until Grundo said, "If you can't do it, I will." If you didn't know Grundo, you'd think this was a generous offer, but it was a threat really. Grundo is dyslexic. Unless he thinks hard, he writes inside out and backwards. He was threatening me with half a page of crooked writing with words like "inside" turning up as "sindie" and "story" as "otsyr".

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

If you stood up and told the truth in the wrong way, it was not true any longer, though it might be as powerful as ever.

Diana Wynne Jones

Mitt did not quite forget his perfect land. He remembered it, though a little fuzzily, next time the wind dropped, but he did not set off to look for it again. It was plain to him that soldiers only brought you back again if you went. It made him sad. When an inkling of it came to him in silence, or in scents, or, later, if the wind hummed a certain note, or a storm came shouting in from the sea and he caught the same note in the midst of its noise, he thought of his lost perfect place and felt for a moment as if his heart would break.

Diana Wynne Jones

The only good Dorig is a dead Dorig.

Diana Wynne Jones

It is of course a magic carpet." Abdullah had heard that one before. He bowed over his tucked-up hands. "Many and various are the virtues said to reside in carpets," he agreed. "Which one does the poet of the sands claim for this? Does it welcome a man home to his tent? Does it bring peace to the hearth? Or maybe," he said, poking the frayed edge suggestively with one toe, "it is said to never wear out?

Diana Wynne Jones

You wouldn't believe how lonely you get.

Diana Wynne Jones

That was the trouble with Joris. He was nice. You ended up liking him, whatever you did. Even when you wanted to shake him till his head fell off.

Diana Wynne Jones

I was a thoroughly hardened Homeward Bounder. There seemed nothing I didn't know. Then I ran into Helen. My friendly neighbourhood enemy. There really was nothing like Helen on any world I'd ever been to. I sometimes didn't think she was human at all.

Diana Wynne Jones

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

Diana Wynne Jones

"If you call me V. S. once again," she said, "I shall scream - I warn you!" Sam patted her arm. "You need a butter-pie," he said kindly.

Diana Wynne Jones

I never said my wishes were supposed to do anyone any good," said the genie. "In fact, I swore that they would always do as much harm as possible.

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

If nothing happened, then there's nothing to remember," she told herself, trying to sound philosophical. "Of course there's nowhere to start.

Diana Wynne Jones

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

Diana Wynne Jones

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