P. L. Travers quotes

P. L. Travers was an Australian-born British writer, best known as the creator of the Mary Poppins series. Her imaginative stories about the magical nanny have enchanted generations of readers and inspired beloved film adaptations. She left a lasting legacy in children's literature with her unique blend of whimsy and wisdom. Here are 68 of her quotes:

A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns. (P. L. Travers)
You can ask me anything you like about my work, but I'll never talk about myself. View quote
P. L. Travers
You do not chop off a section of your imaginative substance and make a book specifically for children, for, if you are honest, you have no idea where childhood ends and maturity begins. It is all endless and all one. View quote
P. L. Travers
What I want to know is this: Are the stars gold paper or is the gold paper stars? View quote
P. L. Travers
It may be that to eat and be eaten are the same thing in the end. My wisdom tells me that this is probably so. We are all made of the same stuff, remember, we of the Jungle, you of the City. The same substance composes us - the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star - we are all one, all moving to the same end. Remember that when you no longer remember me, my child. View quote
P. L. Travers
The Irish, as a race, have the oral tradition in their blood. A direct question to them is an anathema, but in other cases, a mere syllable of a hero's name will elicit whole chapters of stories. View quote
P. L. Travers
Could it be ... that the hero is one who is willing to set out, take the first step, shoulder something? Perhaps the hero is one who puts his foot upon a path not knowing what he may expect from life but in some way feeling in his bones that life expects something of him. View quote
P. L. Travers
When I was a child, love to me was what the sea is to a fish: something you swim in while you are going about the important affairs of life. View quote
P. L. Travers
There are worlds beyond worlds and times beyond times, all of them true, all of them real, and all of them (as children know) penetrating each other. View quote
P. L. Travers
I never wrote my books especially for children. View quote
P. L. Travers
Presently they saw their Mother coming out of the drawing-room with a visitor following her. Jane and Michael could see that the newcomer had shiny black hair - "Rather like a wooden Dutch doll," whispered Jane. And that she was thin, with large feet and hands, and small, rather peering blue-eyes. "You'll find that they are very nice children," Mrs. Banks was saying. Michael's elbow gave a sharp dig at Jane's ribs. "And that they give no trouble at all," continued Mrs. Banks uncertainly, as if she herself didn't really believe what she was saying. They heard the visitor sniff as though she didn't either. "Now, about reference -" Mrs. Banks went on. "Oh, I make it a rule never to give references," said the other firmly. (P. L. Travers)
For me there are no answers, only questions, and I am grateful that the questions go on and on. View quote
P. L. Travers
Tonight the small are free from the great and the great protect the small. View quote
P. L. Travers
The silky hush of intimate things, fragrant with my fragrance, steal softly down, so loth to rob me of my last dear concealment. View quote
P. L. Travers
In the village where I live, in Sussex, we made our bonfire in the Vicarage paddock and every year, as soon as it was lit, the Vicar's cow would begin to dance. She danced while the flames rose up to the sky, she danced till the ashes were black and cold. And the next morning - it was always the same - the Vicar would have no milk for his breakfast. It is strange to think of a simple cow rejoicing at the saving of Parliament so many years ago. View quote
P. L. Travers
Mary Poppins herself had flown away, but the gifts she had brought would remain for always.. View quote
P. L. Travers
I make a point of writing, if only a little, every day, as a kind of discipline so that it is not a whim but a piece of work. View quote
P. L. Travers
I read myths and fairy tales and books about them a great deal now, but I very seldom read novels. I find modern novels bore me. I can read Tolstoy and the Russians, but mostly I read comparative mythology and comparative religion. I need matter to carry with me. View quote
P. L. Travers
It is only through the ordinary that the extraordinary can make itself perceived. View quote
P. L. Travers
I think if she comes from anywhere that has a name, it is out of myth. And myth has been my study and joy ever since - oh, the age, I would think... of three. I've studied it all my life. No culture can satisfactorily move along its forward course without its myths, which are its teachings, its fundamental dealing with the truth of things, and the one reality that underlies everything. View quote
P. L. Travers
The true fairytales ... come straight out of myth; they are, as it were, minuscule reaffirmation of myths, or perhaps the myth made accessible to the local folky mind. One might say that fairytales are the myths falling into time and locality ... is the same stuff, all the essentials are there, it is small, but perfect. Not minimized, not to be made digestible for children. (P. L. Travers)
If you want to find Cherry-Tree Lane all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the cross-roads. View quote
P. L. Travers
For me there are no answers, only questions, and I am grateful that the questions go on and on. I don't look for an answer, because I don't think there is one. I'm very glad to be the bearer of a question. View quote
P. L. Travers
Since 1939, however, there have been no bonfires on the village greens. No fireworks gleam in the blackened parks and the streets are dark and silent. But this darkness will not last forever. There will some day come a Fifth of November - or another date, it doesn't matter - when fires will burn in a chain of brightness from Land's End to John O' Groats. The children will dance and leap about them as they did in the times before. They will take each other by the hand and watch the rockets breaking, and afterwards they will go home singing to the houses full of light... View quote
P. L. Travers
We'll never forget you, Mary Poppins! View quote
P. L. Travers