Diana Wynne Jones Quotes

“More about Howl? Sophie thought desperately. I have to blacken his name! Her mind was such a blank that for a second it actually seemed to her that Howl had no faults at all. How stupid! 'Well, he's fickle, careless, selfish, and hysterical,' she said. 'Half the time I think he doesn't care what happens to anyone as long as he's alright--but then I find out how awfully kind he's been to someone. Then I think he's kind just when it suits him--only then I find out he undercharges poor people. I don't know, Your Majesty. He's a mess.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“By now it was clear that Howl was in a mood to produce green slime any second. Sophie hurriedly put her sewing away. "I'll make some hot buttered toast," she said. "Is that all you can do in the face of tragedy??" Howl asked. "Make toast!”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“You are a terror, aren't you? Leave this yard alone. I know just where everything is in it, and I won't be able to find the things I need for my transport spells if you tidy them up.'
So there was probably a bundle of souls or a box of chewed hearts somewhere out here, Sophie thought. She felt really thwarted. ‘Tidying up is what I’m here for!’ she shouted at Howl.
‘Then you must think of a new meaning for your life,’ Howl said.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“After that, he tried to go upstairs through the broom cupboard, and then the yard. This seemed to puzzle him a little. But finally he discovered the stairs, all except the bottom on, and fell up them on his face. The whole castle shook.”
― Diana Wynne Jones

“You shone like a star. The funniest, wisest writer & the finest friend”
― Neil Gaiman

“When you grow up to be an author and write books, you'll think you're making the books up, but they'll all really be true, somewhere.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“Diana used to tell me she had a travel jinx, something I only really started to believe when the plane door fell off.”
― Neil Gaiman

“I can't wear thethe! I want my thtwipey oneth!”
― Diana Wynne Jones, House of Many Ways

“She was witchy, yes, and in charge of a cauldron roiling with ideas and stories, but she always gave the impression that the stories, the ones she wrote and wrote so very well and so wisely, had simply happened, and that all she had done was to hold the pen. (On Diana Wynne Jones)”
― Neil Gaiman

“Sorry I gave you a fright." Howl seemed more used to holding babies than Sophie was. He rocked Morgan soothingly and stared at him. Morgan stared, rather balefullt, back. "My word, he's ugly" Howl said. "Chip off the old block" "Howl!" said Sophie. But she did not sound angry.”
― Diana Wynne Jones

“And, suddenly, as if her head cleared, she was quite sure that wonderful things did indeed exist. Even if they're only in my own mind, she thought, they're there and worth fighting for.”
― Diana Wynne Jones

“O most excellent of carpets," he said, "O brightest-colored and most delicately woven, whose lovely textile is so cunningly enhanced with magic, I fear I have not treated you hitherto with proper respect. I have snapped commands and even shouted at you, where I now see that your gentle nature requires only the mildest of requests. Forgive, oh, forgive!”
― Diana Wynne Jones

“I hate dialect. It gets in the way. If there is a need for dialect, you can render it quite easily by reproducing the rythm of that form of speech. Then you don't need to bother with silly spellings”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Reflections: On the Magic of Writing

“What's the good of being civilized, that's what I'd like to know? It just means other people can break the rules and you can't.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Black Maria

“[T]he incomparable Diana Wynne Jones, one of the finest mythic fiction writers of our age, who left us too early (due to cancer) two days ago. I'm so grateful to her for the extraordinary books she has left behind, which have inspired a whole generation of younger writers. She was writing brilliant YA fantasy before the genre (as we know it now) even existed; she was writing enchanting "wizard school" books long before Harry Potter was a gleam in Rowling's eye; and her knowledge of how to weave mythic/folkloric themes into contemporary fiction was second to no one's. Diana will be terribly missed, but through her magical stories, her light will stay on.”
― Terri Windling

“There goes Mig with her happy endings again," Chris said. But I don't care. I like happy endings. And I asked Chris why something should be truer just because it's unhappy. He couldn't answer.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Black Maria

“You know this could kill me, don't you?'
'Look on the bright side,' said Howl. 'It could be me it kills.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“Where's school?" he shrieked at her. "I'm missing cricket practice!" For half an hour after that the hospital was in total confusion, while everyone tried to catch a five-foot corpse clothed mostly in a flying sheet, which raced up and down the corridors shrieking that it was missing cricket practice.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, The Lives of Christopher Chant

“—Por eso me gustan las arañas. Si al principio no lo consiguen, lo vuelven a intentar. Yo lo intento —dijo con gran pesar—. Pero la culpa es mía, porque hice un trato hace años y ahora jamás seré capaz de amar a nadie de verdad.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle

“—Quizá —dijo— deberías estar más pendiente de a quién muerde tu perro.
—¡Yo no! —dijo Jamal—. Soy un creyente del libre albedrío. Si mi perro elige odiar
a toda la raza humana menos a mí, es libre de hacerlo.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Castle in the Air

“That can go in the cabinet, and so can this One Ring. No, don't put it on, you fool! It's dangerous!”
― Diana Wynne Jones, The Game

“—¡Por qué será que siempre que voy a Gales vuelvo con un resfriado! —gimió Howl, y se conjuró un montón de pañuelos a la vez.”
― Diana Wynne Jones

“... I asked you for Hobbits on a grail quest, and not one Hobbit have I seen!”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Hexwood