Quote

If you're going to have a complicated story you must work to a map otherwise you'll never make a map of it afterwards.

J. R. R. Tolkien

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J. R. R. Tolkien
Age: 81 †
Born: 1892
Born: January 3
Died: 1973
Died: September 2
Author
Essayist
Historian
Illustrator
Linguist
Literary Critic
Military Officer
Poet
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Translator
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
John R. R. Tolkien
J-R-R Tolkien
Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
Never
Otherwise
Complicated
Story
Stories
Must
Going
Work
Afterwards
Make
Maps

More quotes by J. R. R. Tolkien

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Then Elrond and Galadriel rode on for the Third Age was over and the Days of the Rings were passed and an end was come of the story and song of those times.
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There are many things in the deep waters and seas and lands may change. And it is not our part here to take thought only for a season, or for a few lives of Men, or for a passing age of the world. We should seek a final end of this menace, even if we do not hope to make one.
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All that is gold does not glitter.
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For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more--remembering my own sins and follies and realize that men's hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words.
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The treacherous are ever distrustful.
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You will notice already that Mr. Baggins was not quite so prosy as he liked to believe, also that he was very fond of flowers.
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Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not or that you feel good this morning or that it is a morning to be good on?
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I don't feel any guilt complex about The Lord of the Rings.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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With hope or without hope we will follow the trail of our enemies. And woe to them, if we prove the swifter!
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Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate And though I oft have passed them by A day will come at last when I Shall take the hidden paths that run West of the Moon, East of the Sun.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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I am a Christian…so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’ — though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Never laugh at live dragons, Bilbo you fool! he said to himself, and it became a favourite saying of his later, and passed into a proverb. You aren't nearly through this adventure yet, he added, and that was pretty true as well.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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We are lost, lost,' said Gollum. 'No name, no business, no Precious, nothing. Only empty. Only hungry yes, we are hungry. A few little fishes, nasty bony little fishes, for a poor creature, and they say death. So wise they are so just, so very just
J. R. R. Tolkien
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The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know?
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Often does hatred hurt itself.
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Don't dip your beard in the foam, Father! They cried to Thorin. It is long enough without watering it!
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Green are the leaves I leave in Mirkwood.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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May the hair on your toes never fall out!
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible, and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes. Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill.
J. R. R. Tolkien