"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
— Roald Dahl

"So, please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookcase on the wall."
— Roald Dahl

"Do you know what breakfast cereal is made of? It's made of all those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners!"
— Roald Dahl

"It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you."
— Roald Dahl (The Witches)

"I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage."
— Roald Dahl

"A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men."
— Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

"I'm right and you're wrong, I'm big and you're small, and there's nothing you can do about it."
— Roald Dahl (Matilda)

"The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world all to themselves."
— Roald Dahl (The BFG)

"Two rights don't equal a left."
— Roald Dahl (The BFG)

"'I want an Oompa-Loompa!' screamed Veruca."
— Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

"We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it."
— Roald Dahl

"She might even be your lovely school-teacher who is reading these words to you at this very moment. Look carefully at that teacher. Perhaps she is smiling at the absurdity of such a suggestion. Don't let that put you off. It could be part of cleverness.

I am not, of course, telling you for one second that your teacher actually is a witch. All I am saying is that she might be one. It is most unlikely. But--here comes the big "but"--not impossible."
— Roald Dahl (The Witches)

""Everything in this room is eatable, even I'm eatable! But that is called cannibalism, my dear children, which is frowned upon in most societies.""
— Roald Dahl

"Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people."
— Roald Dahl

"We all have our moments of brilliance and glory, and this was mine."
— Roald Dahl (Boy: Tales of Childhood)

""A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."
"
— Roald Dahl

"Mr. Twit was a twit. He was born a twit. And, now at the age of sixty, he was a bigger twit than ever."
— Roald Dahl (The Twits)

"Mr. Wonka: "Don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted."
Charlie Bucket: "What happened?"
Mr. Wonka: "He lived happily ever after."
— Roald Dahl

"A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it"
— Roald Dahl

"Do you like vegetables?" Sophie asked, hoping to steer the conversation towards a slightly less dangerous kind of food.
"You is trying to change the subject," the Giant said sternly. "We is having an interesting babblement about the taste of the human bean. The human bean is not a vegetable."
— Roald Dahl (The BFG)

"I'm wondering what to read next." Matilda said. "I've finished all the children's books."
— Roald Dahl (Matilda)

"All you do is to look / At a page in this book / Because that's where we always will be. / No book ever ends / When it's full of your friends / The Giraffe and the Pelly and me."
— Roald Dahl (The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me)

"'Here it is,' Nigel said.
'Mrs D, Mrs I, Mrs FFI, Mrs C, Mrs U, Mrs LTY. That spells difficulty.'
'How perfectly ridiculous!' snorted Miss Trunchbull. 'Why are all these women married?"
— Roald Dahl (Matilda)

"I shall never have a bath again," I said.
"Just dont have one too often," my grandmother said. "Once a month is quite enough for a sensible child." It was at times like these that I loved my grandmother more than ever."
— Roald Dahl

"I'd rather be fried alive and eaten by Mexicans."
— Roald Dahl (James and the Giant Peach)

"I've heard tell that what you imagine sometimes comes true.
-Grandpa Joe"
— Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

"It wasn't raindrops at all. It was a great solid mass of water that might have been a lake or a whole ocean dropping out of the sky on top of them, and down it came, down and down and down, crashing first onto the seagulls and then onto the peach itself, while the poor travelers shrieked with fear and groped around frantically for something to catch hold of- the peach stem, the silk strings, anything they could find- and all the time the water came pouring and roaring down upon them, bouncing and smashing and sloshing and slashing and swashing and swirling and surging and whirling and gurgling and gushing and rushing and rushing, and it was like being pinned down underneath the biggest waterfall in the world and not being able to get out."
— Roald Dahl

"I am only 8 years old, I told myself. No little boy of 8 has ever murdered anyone. It's not possible."
— Roald Dahl

"My candle burns at both ends. It will not last the night. But ah my foes and oh my friends it shares a lovely light."
— Roald Dahl

"Whipped cream isn't whipped cream at all if it hasnt been whipped with whips, just like poached eggs isn't poached eggs unless it's been stolen in the dead of the night."
— Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

"Fiona has the same glacial beauty of an iceburg, but unlike the iceburg she has absolutely nothing below the surface."
— Roald Dahl (Matilda)

"I was already beginning to realize that the only way to conduct oneself in a situation where bombs rained down and bullets whizzed past, was to accept the dangers and all the consequences as calmly as possible. Fretting and sweating about it all was not going to help."
— Roald Dahl (Going Solo)

"A BOOK?! WHAT D'YOU WANNA FLAMING BOOK FOR?...WE'VE GOT A LOVELY TELLY WITH A 12-INCH SCREEN AND NOW YA WANNA BOOK!"
— Roald Dahl (Matilda)

"Matilda said, "Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable...""
— Roald Dahl (Matilda)

"...the walls were wet and sticky, and peach juice was dripping from the ceiling. James opened his mouth and caught some of it on his tongue. It tasted delicious."
— Roald Dahl (James and the Giant Peach)

"Of course they're real people. They're Oompa-Loompas...Imported direct from Loompaland...And oh what a terrible country it is! Nothing but thick jungles infested by the most dangerous beasts in the world - hornswogglers and snozzwangers and those terrible wicked whangdoodles. A whangdoodle would eat ten Oompa-Loompas for breakfast and come galloping back for a second helping."
— Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

""There's nothin' you can get from a book that you can't get from a television fastah!"
-Harry Wormwood"
— Roald Dahl (Matilda)

"Poor Cindy's heart was torn to shreds.
My Prince! She thought. He chops off heads!
How could I marry anyone
Who does that sort of thing for fun?
The Prince cried, "Who's this dirty slut?
Off with her nut! Off with her nut!"
— Roald Dahl (Revolting Rhymes)

"Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."
— Roald Dahl

"If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."
— Roald Dahl (The Twits)

"The little pig began to pray
But Wolfie blew his house away.
He shouted, "Bacon, Pork, and Ham!
Oh what a lucky wolf I am!"
And though he ate the pig quite fast,
He carefully kept the tail till last."
— Roald Dahl (Revolting Rhymes)

""A whizzpopper!" cried the BFG, beaming at her. "Us giants is making whizzpoppers all the time! Whizzpopping is a sign of happiness. It is music in our ears! You surely is not telling me that a little whizzpopping if forbidden among human beans?""
— Roald Dahl (The BFG)

""Well not exactly," the father said."Nobody could do that. but it didn't take me long...""
— Roald Dahl (Matilda)

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."
— Roald Dahl

""A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.""
— Roald Dahl

"Oh where, oh where had Snow White gone?
She'd found it easy, being pretty
To hitch a ride into the city."
— Roald Dahl (Revolting Rhymes)

"We have tears in our eyes
As we wave our goodbyes,
We so loved being with you, we three.
So do please now and then
Come and see us again,
The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.

"All you do is to look
At a page in this book
Because that’s where we always will be.
No book ever ends
When it’s full of your friends
The Giraffe and the Pelly and me."
— Roald Dahl

""...If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.""
— Roald Dahl

"Both Matilda and Lavender were enthralled. It was quite clear to them that they were at this moment standing in the presence of a master. Here was somebody who had brought the art of skulduggery to the highest point of perfection, somebody, moreover, who was willing to risk life and limb in pursuit of her calling. They gazed in wonder at this goddess, and suddenly even the boil on her nose was no longer a blemish but a badge of courage."
— Roald Dahl (Matilda)

"The maid screamed.
The Queen gasped.
Sophie waved."
— Roald Dahl (The BFG)