Russell Hoban > Quotes

“Who is Alice?" asked mother.
"Alice is somebody that nobody can see," said Frances. "And that is why she does not have a birthday. So I am singing Happy Thursday to her." - Frances the badger”
― Russell Hoban, Birthday for Frances

“After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?”
― Russell Hoban

“There is a tiger in my room,' said Frances.
'Did he bite you?' said Father.
'No,' said Frances.
'Did he scratch you?' said Mother.
'No,' said Frances.
'Then he is a friendly tiger,' said Father. 'He will not hurt you. Go back to sleep.”
― Russell Hoban, Bedtime for Frances

“The things that matter don't necessarily make sense.”
― Russell Hoban

“An idea is an eye given by God for the seeing of God. Some of these eyes we cannot bear to look out of; we blind them as quickly as possible.”
― Russell Hoban

“Sometimes I think that the biggest difference between men and women is that more men need to seek out some terrible lurking thing in existence and hurl themselves upon it like Ahab with the White Whale. Women know where it lives but they can let it alone. Even in martiarchal societies I doubt that there were ever female Beowulfs. Women lie with gods and demons but they don’t go looking for monsters to fight with. Ariadne gave Theseus a clew but the minotaur was his business.”
― Russell Hoban, Turtle Diary

“There were no lions any more. There had been lions once. Sometimes in the shimmer of the heat on the plains the motion of their running still flickered on the dry wind — tawny, great, and quickly gone. Sometimes the honey-colored moon shivered to the silence of a ghost-roar on the rising air.”
― Russell Hoban, Lion Of Boaz Jachin And Jachin Boaz

“Where are we?' the mouse child asked his father. His voice was tiny in the stillness of the night. 'I don't know' the father replied. 'What are we Papa?'. 'I don't know. We must wait and see'.”
― Russell Hoban, The Mouse And His Child

“When you suffer an attack of nerves you're being attacked by the nervous system. What chance has a man got against a system?”
― Russell Hoban

“What is all this talk of elephants and seals?' asked Frog. 'It's nonsense', said the father, 'and yet it's not the child's fault. Our motor is in me. He fills the empty space inside himself with foolish dreams that cannot possibly come true'.”
― Russell Hoban, The Mouse And His Child

“(Frances has gotten out of bed again and come to her parents' room...)
'How can the wind have a job?' asked Frances.
'Everybody has a job,' said Father.
'I have to go to my office every morning at nine o'clock. That is my job. You have to go to sleep so you can be wide awake for school tomorrow. That is your job.'
Frances said, 'I know, but...'
Father said, 'I have not finished. If the wind does not blow the curtains, he will be out of a job. If I do not go to the office, I will be out of a job. And if you do not go to sleep now, do you know what will happen to you?'
'I will be out of a job?' said Frances.
'No,' said Father.
'I will get a spanking?' said Frances.
'Right!' said Father.
'Good night!' said Frances, and she went back to her room.”
― Russell Hoban, Bedtime for Frances

“He was thinking what a long and wide thing time is, to have so many happenings in it.”
― Russell Hoban, Soonchild

“Oh, yes,' said Mother, 'you may be sure that there will always be plenty of chocolate cake around here.”
― Russell Hoban, Baby Sister For Frances

“We can't all be investigating non-coding DNA," I said, feeling an upsurge of gastric acid. "Some of us have to sell bullshit self-improvement courses”
― Russell Hoban

“O yes youwl want to think on that you dont want your mouf to walk you where your feet dont want to go.”
― Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker

“Destiny is not to be trifled with. Do not commit the tragic error of satisfying present appetite at the cost of future fulfilment”
― Russell Hoban

“If we'd been edible we'd never have lasted this long.”
― Russell Hoban, The Mouse And His Child

“What do you do when you're wound up?' she asked. 'Do you play that drum?'. 'No,' said the child. 'We used to dance.' 'But now we walk,' said the father. 'And behind us an enemy walks faster.' 'That's life,' said Euterpe.”
― Russell Hoban, The Mouse And His Child

“An ordinary mirror is silvered at the back but the window of the night train has darkness behind the glass. My face and the faces of other travellers were now mirrored on this darkness in a succession of stillnesses. Consider this, said the darkness: any motion at any speed is a succession of stillnesses; any section through an action will show just such a plane of stillness as this dark window in which your seeking face is mirrored. And in each plane of stillness is the moment of clarity that makes you responsible for what you do.”
― Russell Hoban, The Medusa Frequency

“I said, 'Yes theres a lot to look a head to. Like croaking iron at Widders Dump. We do the croaking and they get the iron.'
He said, 'Riddley theres other things to do as wel.'
I said, 'Yes and they all smel of cow shit dont they?”
― Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker, Expanded Edition