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Fantasy for me as a kid was real, and I had a fantasy about what life was, whether it was sort of wicked and dire, or wholly normal, or whatever. Anything really close to home is not, it seems to me, what a good book should be about.

Diana Wynne Jones

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Diana Wynne Jones
Age: 76 †
Born: 1934
Born: August 16
Died: 2011
Died: March 26
Novelist
Poet
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
London
England
Diana Gwyneth Jones
Anything
Close
Book
Normal
Real
Sort
Really
Whatever
Good
Whether
Dire
Life
Kids
Wholly
Seems
Wicked
Home
Fantasy

More quotes by Diana Wynne Jones

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Oh confound that gray-and-scarlet suit! Sophie said. I refuse to believe that I was the one that got caught with it!
Diana Wynne Jones
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Go to bed, you fool, Calcifer said sleepily. You're drunk. Who, me? said Howl. I assure you, my friends, I am cone sold stober. He got up and stalked upstairs, feeling for the wall as if he thought it might escape him unless he kept in touch with it. His bedroom door did escape him.
Diana Wynne Jones
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...if the spell was off, I’d have my heart eaten before I could turn around.” “Don’t you want your heart eaten?” asked the fire. [...] “Naturally I don’t,” Sophie answered.
Diana Wynne Jones
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You have no right to make jigsaws of people.
Diana Wynne Jones
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Howl’s voice was presently heard shouting weakly, “Help me, someone! I’m dying from neglect up here!
Diana Wynne Jones
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Writing for adults, you have to keep reminding them of what is going on. The poor things have given up using their brains when they read. Children you only need to tell things to once.
Diana Wynne Jones
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I can't abide people who go soft over animals and then cheat every human they come across!
Diana Wynne Jones
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It does seem that a fantasy, working out in its own terms, stretching you beyond the normal concerns of your own life, gains you a peculiar charge of energy which inexplicably enriches you. At least, this is my ideal of a fantasy, and I am always trying to write it.
Diana Wynne Jones
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Beauty isn't made of sugar.
Diana Wynne Jones
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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
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Happiness isn't a thing. You can't go out and get it like a cup of tea. It's the way you feel about things.
Diana Wynne Jones
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Busy old fool, unruly Sophie
Diana Wynne Jones
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But Sophie and Howl were holding one another's hand and smiling and smiling, quite unable to stop. Don't bother me know, said Howl. I only did it for the money. Liar!said Sophie. I said, Michael said, that Calcifer's come back! That did get Howl's attention and Sophie's too.
Diana Wynne Jones
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I only want to catch you,” Michael explained. “I won’t hurt you.” “No! No!” the star crackled desperately. “That’s wrong! I’m supposed to die!” “But I could save you if you’d let me catch you,” Michael told it gently. “No!” cried the star. “I’d rather die!
Diana Wynne Jones
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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
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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
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One person ought to treat another person properly, even if the person's himself.
Diana Wynne Jones
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It's just as I thought, she said. I prefer you to every single one of these. Some of these look far too proud of themselves, and some look selfish and cruel. You are unassuming and kind. I intend to ask my father to marry me to you, instead of to the Prince in Ochinstan. Would you mind?
Diana Wynne Jones
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You cannot rob robbers with a kitten in your hat!
Diana Wynne Jones
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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