Quote

We end up stumbling our way through the forest, never seeing all the unexpected and wonderful possibilities and potentials because we're looking for the idea of a tree, instead of appreciating the actual trees in front of us.

Charles de Lint

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Charles de Lint
Age: 72
Born: 1951
Born: December 22
Musician
Novelist
Poet
Writer
Samuel M. Key
Wonderful
Trees
Potentials
Looking
Fronts
Appreciating
Idea
Appreciate
Stumbling
Ends
Front
Forest
Ideas
Possibility
Possibilities
Way
Instead
Unexpected
Never
Tree
Forests
Life
Seeing
Actual

More quotes by Charles de Lint

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There are few joys to compare with the telling of a well-told tale.
Charles de Lint
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There was too much going on here -- too much that strayed from odd all the way over into seriously weird.
Charles de Lint
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The best artists know what to leave out.
Charles de Lint
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I don't actually talk about my books much, because I find if I talk about them I don't want to write them anymore. I write to find out what happens. You know how you read a book? That's what I'm doing except I'm just doing it a lot slower because it takes a lot longer to do.
Charles de Lint
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I suppose the other thing too many forget is that we were all stories once, each and every one of us. And we remain stories. But too often we allow those stories to grow banal, or cruel or unconnected to each other.We allow the stories to continue, but they no longer have a heart. They no longer sustain us.
Charles de Lint
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I like living in the city where I have all my books and music and can go out to buy that night's dinner or easily see a band. But I also like the wild places, especially hiking in the desert and the Eastern woodlands. Do I have to choose?
Charles de Lint
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The magic in this world seems to work in whispers and small kindnesses.
Charles de Lint
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The thing with pretending you're in a good mood is that sometimes you can actually trick yourself into feeling better.
Charles de Lint
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Every time we fix something that broken, whether it's a car engine or a broken heart, that an act of magic. And what makes it magic is that we choose to create or help, just as we can choose to harm.
Charles de Lint
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Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.
Charles de Lint
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Every time you do a good deed you shine the light a little farther into the dark. And the thing is, when you're gone that light is going to keep shining on, pushing the shadows back.
Charles de Lint
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Music’s the soundtrack of my life and has been since I was a teenager. There’s always music. If I’m not playing it, I’m listening to it. With my writing... sometimes it inspires a story, sometimes it highlights something I’m working on, sometimes it simply helps me stay in the narrative mood.
Charles de Lint
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I was going through the motions of life, instead of really living, and there's no excuse for that. It's not something I'll let happen to me again.
Charles de Lint
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Our lives are stories, and the stories we have to give to each other are the most important. No one has a story too small and all are of equal stature. We each tell them in different ways, through different mediums—and if we care about each other, we'll take the time to listen.
Charles de Lint
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You know how we'd get along better? If everybody'd just remember how we're all related. White, black, Asian, skin. No difference. All the bloodlines go back to that one old mama in Africa.
Charles de Lint
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How hard would it be to ask children what they see in their heads? How big should the house be in comparison to the family standing in front of it? What is it about the anatomy of the people that doesn't look right? Then let them try it again. Teach them to learn how to see and ask questions.
Charles de Lint
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Most times we only see things for the way we are. But we're good at lying to ourselves. Sometimes we need somebody who's not living in our skin to point out how things really are.
Charles de Lint
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When one of my characters becomes aware of a magical element, it might be because the world is wider than we assume it to be, but it might also be a reminder to pay attention to what is here already, hidden only because it's been forgotten.
Charles de Lint
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Books and music saved me as a teenager because it was through them that I realized that I wasn't alone in my obsessive love for words and music.
Charles de Lint
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The problem with children is that you have to put up with their parents.
Charles de Lint