An Elephant in the Garden Quotes

“our home should be an oasis of peace and harmony for us in a troubled world,”
― Michael Morpurgo, An Elephant in the Garden

“I think I have always had a strong sense of justice, of fair play, of what is right and what is wrong.”
― Michael Morpurgo, An Elephant in the Garden

“...but the truth is - and I am ashamed of this now - that I was far more interested in boys and bicycles, than in politics - and more in bicycles than boys, I have to say.”
― Michael Morpurgo, An Elephant in the Garden

“that was the only way of keeping our hopes alive, by looking beyond all we were seeing around us, and the shadow of disaster that hung over us.”
― Michael Morpurgo, An Elephant in the Garden

“The elephant was called Marlene. Mutti got to name her because she was working with the elephants in the zoo. She named her after a singer she loved, that many people loved in those days. Marlene Dietrich.”
― Michael Morpurgo, An Elephant in the Garden: Inspired by a True Story

“an elephant, an elephant if you please, that I loved this man – this airman, this enemy, whom I had not known even for twenty-four hours – that I knew I would love him till the day I died. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but that was how I felt, and when you are sixteen you feel things very immediately, very strongly, very certainly. “How wicked is that, Marlene?” I said. “How wicked is that, to love someone who should be my enemy, who has just bombed my city, killed my friends? How wicked is that?” I looked up into her weepy eye. For an answer she wafted her ears gently at me, and groaned deep inside herself. It was enough to tell me that she had listened, and understood, and that she did not judge me. I learned something that day from Marlene, about friendship, and I have never forgotten it. To be a true friend, you have to be a good listener, and I discovered that day that Marlene was”
― Michael Morpurgo, An Elephant in the Garden

“have always had a strong sense of justice, of fair play, of what is right and what is wrong. Maybe it is just natural for children to be born like this. Maybe I got it from Mutti. Who knows? Anyway, I always recognized injustice when I saw it, and I felt it deeply. And believe you me, there was plenty of it about in those days. I saw the Jews in the streets, with their yellow stars sewn onto their coats. I saw their shops with the star of David daubed in paint all over the windows. Several times I saw them beaten up by Nazi stormtroopers, and left to lie in the gutter.”
― Michael Morpurgo, An Elephant in the Garden: Inspired by a True Story

“would shout at them, whenever I felt brave enough,”
― Michael Morpurgo, An Elephant in the Garden: Inspired by a True Story

“So, I was born on the ninth of February, 1929, in Dresden, in Germany.”
― Michael Morpurgo, An Elephant in the Garden: Inspired by a True Story

“hell,”
― Michael Morpurgo, An Elephant in the Garden: Inspired by a True Story

“Agatha Christie”
― Michael Morpurgo, An Elephant in the Garden: Inspired by a True Story