S.G. > S.G.'s Quotes

“If you don't like vampire games, don't play”
― Vivian Vande Velde, Companions of the Night

“She sighed. Loudly. "Physical appearance is not what is important."
Yeah right. Tell that to any girl who hasn't bothered to put on a presentable shirt or fix her hair because she's only running into the grocery store to get a quart of milk for her grandmother, and who does she see tending the 7-ITEMS-OR-LESS cash register but the guy of her dreams, except she can't even say hi—much less try to develop a meaningful relationship—since she looks like the poster child for the terminally geeky.”
― Vivian Vande Velde, Heir Apparent

“They'd poisoned me, dammit. Probably to trade my dead body to the barbarians for Wulfgar's safe return. Or maybe just for the fun of it.”
― Vivian Vande Velde, Heir Apparent

“There, close enough to spit on--if I'd been a barbarian and inclined to spit--was the dragon.”
― Vivian Vande Velde, Heir Apparent

“Those Grimm brothers," she said with a sigh, "they'll never amount to anything." And she was right because all they ever became was writers.”
― Vivian Vande Velde, Cloaked in Red

“Giannine--What are they going to do: smack me on the head with a pamplet?”
― Vivian Vande Velde, Heir Apparent

“And there was this sweet-looking little old lady with her white hair in a bun and everything, the typical grandmother type, and she was swearing her head off. I guess Alzheimer's had brought out her inner sailor.”
― Vivian Vande Velde, Remembering Raquel

“I think we ought to live happily ever after.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“You must admit I have a right to live in a pigsty if I want.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“I think we ought to live happily ever after," and she thought he meant it. Sophie knew that living happily ever after with Howl would be a good deal more hair-raising than any storybook made it sound, though she was determined to try. "It should be hair-raising," added Howl.
"And you'll exploit me," Sophie said.
"And then you'll cut up all my suits to teach me.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“I am a believer in free will. If my dog chooses to hate the whole human race except myself, it must be free to do so.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Castle in the Air

“Typical! I break my neck trying to get here, and I find you peacefully tidying up!”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“In the land of Ingary where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of the three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“I make that four horses and ten men just to get rid of one old woman. What did you do to the King?”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“I've got a hangover."
"No, you hit your head on the floor."
"I can't stay. I've got to rescue that fool Sophie.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“If you take myth and folklore, and these things that speak in symbols, they can be interpreted in so many ways that although the actual image is clear enough, the interpretation is infinitely blurred, a sort of enormous rainbow of every possible colour you could imagine.”
― Diana Wynne Jones

“I'm delirious. Spots are crawling before my eyes."
"Those are spiders.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“This is the mythosphere. It's made up of all the stories, theories and beliefs, legends, myths and hopes, that are generated here on Earth. As you can see, it's constantly growing and moving as people invent new tales to tell or find new things to believe. The older strands move out to become these spirals, where things tend to become quite crude and dangerous. They've hardened off, you see.”
― Diana Wynne Jones

“All she heard next of the strange conversation behind the sofa was Mrs. Pendragon saying something about sending Twinkle (or was his name Howl?) to bed without supper and Twinkle daring her to 'jutht TRY it.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, House of Many Ways

“Goats," said Maxwell Hyde, "are a special case. Mad as hatters, all of them.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, The Merlin Conspiracy

“It was only when Shona, in sheer fury, turned the carnivorous sheep among them that they moved. They ran, some of them with charming little white sheep attached to their legs or backsides and the rest shouting about monsters.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Dark Lord of Derkholm

“I am really very grateful for this Award. It is one of the first given to a woman, and to two women at that. When I first started getting work published, I used to have wistful thoughts at the way all important awards were given to men. Women, I used to think, could be as innovative, imaginative and productive as possible - and women were the ones mostly at work in the field of fantasy for children and young adults - but only let a man enter the field, and people instantly regarded what he had to say and what he did as more Important. He got respectful reviews as well as awards, even if what he was doing - which it often was - was imitating the women. But you have changed all that.
Thank you for being so enlightened.
Women, large-minded, formidable women, have played an almost exclusive part in helping my career. I have hardly ever dealt with a man - at least, when it came to publishing: ”
― Diana Wynne Jones

“I seem to have excalibured this knife.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Enchanted Glass

“All these things that crib and cab in your brain, in your imagination, are in fact things that might well in later life drive you insane.”
― Diana Wynne Jones

“I am a total zombie just after I wake up. It takes me half an hour even to get my eyes open. Ask anyone who knows me. I can't see; I can't talk properly; I can't do anything without help. The only think I can do properly is think. And I know how to exploit my condition. I've had years of practice.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, The Merlin Conspiracy

“Being a hero means ignoring how silly you feel.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock

“To love someone enough to let them go, you had to let them go forever or you did not love them that much.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock

“Only thin, weak thinkers despise fairy stories. Each one has a true, strange fact hidden in it, you know, which you can find if you look.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock

“Slender Youth. A tour companion who may be either a lost prince or a girl/princess in disguise. In the latter case it is tactful to pretend you think she is a boy. She/he will be ignorant, hasty and shy, and will need hauling out of trouble quite a lot. But she/he will grow up in the course of the Tour. In fact she/he will be the only Companion who will change in any way. Quite often, she/he will soon exhibit a very useful talent for magic and end up by hauling everyone else out of trouble. But this will not be until midway through your second brochure.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland

“If you must know, I-I had never in my life kissed a young lady, and you are far too beautiful to me to want to get it wrong!”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Castle in the Air