Witch Week Quotes

“What makes you a real girl or boy is that no one laughs at you. If you are imitation or unreal, the rules give you a right to exist provided you do what the real ones or brutes say. What makes you into me or Charles Morgan is that the rules allow all the girls to be better than me and all the boys better than Charles Morgan.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“You've probably all had those kinds of dreams that are like usual life, except that a lot of things are not the same, and you seem to know the future in them. Well, this is because these other worlds where two things can happen spread out from our world like rainbows, and sort of flow into one another-”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“He started every entry with I got up. It meant, I hate this school. When he wrote I do not like porridge, that was actually true, but porridge was his code-word for Simon Silverson. Simon was porridge at breakfast, potatoes at lunch, and bread at tea. All the other other he hated had code-words too. Dan Smith was cornflakes, cabbage, and butter. Theresa was milk.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“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

“Can't you just keep your big mouth shut?" Brian said furiously to Nan. He pointed to Chrestomanci. "How do we know he's safe? For all we know, he could be the devil that you summoned up!"

"Oh, you flatter me, Brian," Chrestomanci said.”
― Dianna Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“Mr. Crossley suddenly wondered why he was why he was worrying about the note. It was only a joke, after all. He cleared his throat. Everyone looked up hopefully. 'Somebody,' said Mr. Crossley, 'seems to have sent me a Halloween message.' And he read out the note: 'SOMEONE IN THIS CLASS IS A WITCH.'
6B thought this was splendid news. Hands shot up all over the room like a bed of beansprouts.
'It's me, Mr. Crossley!'
'Mr. Crossley, I'm the witch!'
'Can I be the witch, Mr. Crossley?'
'Me, Mr. Crossley, me, me, me!”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“Before long, everyone was giving him answers, and feeling a little superior, because it was really remarkable the number of things Chrestomanci seemed not to know. He had heard of Hitler, though he asked Brian to refresh his memory about him, but he had only the haziest notion about Gandhi or Einstein, and he had never heard of Walt Disney or reggae.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“What did you do?" said Charles.

"You know that night all our shoes went into the hall," said Nirupam. "Well, we had a feast that night. Dan Smith made me get up the floorboards and get the food out. He says I have no right to be so large and so weak," Nirupam said resentfully, "and I was hating him for it, when I took the boards up and found a pair of running shoes, with spikes, hidden there with the food. I turned those shoes into a chocolate cake. I knew Dan was so greedy that he would eat it all himself. And he did eat it. He didn't let anyone else have any. You may have noticed that he wasn't quite himself the next day."

So much had happened to Charles that particular day, that he could not remember Dan seeming anything at all. He didn't have the heart to explain all the trouble Nirupam had caused him. "Those were my spikes," he said sadly. He wobbled along on the mop rather awed at the thought of iron spikes passing through Dan's stomach. "He must have a digestion like an ostrich!"

"The spikes were turned into cherries," said Nirupam. "The soles were the cream. The shoes as a whole became what is called a Black Forest gateau.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“Charles realized that if he were going to apologize to Chrestomanci, he had better do it at once. He turned around to say it. But the folds had already rippled flat and nothing was the same anymore....”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“How does she keep it up? How can Miss Hodge be a teacher and not use witchcraft at all? I use it all the time. How else can I have eyes in the back of my head?'

'One of the great mysteries of our time,' Chrestomanci agreed.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“Hasn't anyone ever told you that the Devil, however he appears, is never a perfect gentleman?”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“Evidently this was the kind of man
that Estelle fell instantly in love with.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“Charles liked poetry because the lines were so short. You could think your own thoughts in the spaces around the print.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“It never ceases to amaze me,” [Chrestomanci] said, “the way people always manage to worry about the wrong things. My dear sir, do you realise that you, your son, and four of your pupils, are all likely to be burnt unless we do something? And here are you worrying about timetables.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“Now there, Charles,' said Chrestomanci, 'you have an excellent example quite apart from rights and wrongs, of why it is such a bad idea to do things to people. Everyone is now sorry for Simon. Which is not what you want at all, is it?”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“I didn't ask to be a witch.'

Chrestomanci looked at him with faint, chilly surprise. 'Didn't you?' The way he said it made Charles actually wonder, for a moment, if he had somehow chosen to be born a witch.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“Chrestomanci looked from Estelle to Nirupam, to Nan, and then at Brian and Charles. He seemed astounded, and not vague at all. The room seemed to go very quiet and sinister and unloving. 'What's all this?' he said. It was so gentle that they all shivered. 'I did understand you, didn't I? The five of you, between you, turn your school upside down. You cause what I am sure is a great deal of trouble to a great many teachers and policemen. You summon me a long way from some extremely important business, in a manner which makes it very difficult for me to get back. And now you all propose just to walk out and leave the mess you've made. Is that what you mean?”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“It was a very powerful politeness.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“I know Brian is nasty, but I had always thought it was his situation before this,' Nirupam remarked.... Charles could not answer at once, because he was not sure that a person's character could be separate from his situation in quite this way.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week

“THE OLD LAB was not used for anything much except detention. But there was still a faint smell of old science clinging to it, from generations of experiments which had gone wrong.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, Witch Week