Once Upon a Wardrobe

by Patti Callahan Henry

It has a lion on the cover, and George often looks to this lion as if it might hold the key to all he desires to know. There is so very much he wants to know.

I walk carefully along the stone pathway that is covered with snow and glinting with swords of sunlight.

“There is a difference between imagination and reason,” he says. “You want to understand with reason; I hear you. And I once believed they battled each other—imagination and reason—that they stood in sharp contrast one to the other.” He takes a draw of his pipe. “But that’s not why we are here right now, Miss Devonshire. Maybe that shall come to you later.”

Whenever you are fed up with life, start writing: ink is the great cure for all human ills.’”

‘Reason is how we get to the truth, but imagination is how we find meaning.’”

“A person doesn’t have to be only one thing in the world. You can be more.”

“With stories, I can see with other eyes, imagine with other imaginations, feel with other hearts, as well as with my own. Stories aren’t equations.”

“Good stories introduce the marvelous. The whole story, paradoxically, strengthens our relish for real life. This excursion sends us back with renewed pleasure to the actual world. It provides meaning.” “Yes,” Warnie says. “It takes us out of ourselves and lets us view reality from new angles. It expands our awareness of the world.”

Jack became so immersed in the story world that he glimpsed it out of the corner of his eye in the real world.

“He told me that when he was young, his secret and imaginative life were quite separate from his real life. He said his imaginative life was as important as breathing—or I think that’s what he said. He told me he never confuses the two, the real and the imaginary. Even Boxen wasn’t something they put themselves into but something they created. And Wagner’s world—it wasn’t something to believe in. It was something that brought him that feeling of joy.”

During those long afternoon walks in nature he came to believe that one must shut the mouth and open the eyes and ears, for nature only asked of him to look, listen, and attend.

My gratitude to you and Mrs. Kirkpatrick is great. You have taught me that talking and writing aren’t merely for chatter. They are, above all, a means to discovering the truth.” “I hear you,” the Knock said. “I hear you.”

Eduction is in one part a shared discovery of ghe truth

But I think what I was trying to say is that when my fictional characters show up, or the ones you’re reading about in that book, they have a place they’re going. A journey. A math problem does too.

She had pointed to the old family wardrobe and asked, “Is there anything behind this linen cupboard?” Jack had looked at her and at the wonder on her young face. Was there anything behind the wardrobe?

“in Gaelic, kaer means ‘castle.’”

“George knows you can take the bad parts in a life, all the hard and dismal parts, and turn them into something of beauty. You can take what hurts and aches and perform magic with it so it becomes something else, something that never would have been, except you make it so with your spells and stories and with your life.”

“I think the lion follows all of us around. We just have to look for him.”