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
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Literary Critic
Military Officer
Poet
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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
John R. R. Tolkien
J-R-R Tolkien
Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
Make
Maps
Never
Otherwise
Complicated
Story
Stories
Must
Going
Work
Afterwards

More quotes by 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
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Indeed you did your best...I hope that it may be long before you find yourself in such a tight corner again between two such terrible old men. ~ Gandalf to Pippin
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I am dreading the publication, for it will be impossible not to mind what is said. I have exposed my heart to be shot at.
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Go back? he thought. No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go! So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.
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This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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You have nice manners for a thief and a liar, said the dragon.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Adventures make one late for supper.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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But to Sam the evening deepened to darkness as he stood at the Haven and as he looked at the grey sea he saw only a shadow in the waters that was soon lost in the West. There he stood far into the night, hearing only the sigh and murmur of the waves on the shores of Middle-Earth, and the sound of them sank deep into his heart.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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The world has changed. I see it in the water. I feel it in the Earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, For none now live who remember it.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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It is mine, I tell you. My own. My precious. Yes, my precious.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Sleep! I feel the need of it, as never I thought any dwarf could , riding is tiring work. Yet my axe is restless in my hand. Give me a row of orc-necks and room to swing and all weariness will fall from me!
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Is it nice, my preciousss? Is it juicy? Is it scrumptiously crunchable?
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Valour needs first strength, then a weapon.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Venice seemed incredibly lovely, elvishly lovely--to me like a dream of Old Gondor, or Pelargir of the Numenorean Ships, before the return of the Shadow.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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For the less even as for the greater there is some deed that he may accomplish but once only and in that deed his heart shall rest.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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For if joyful is the fountain that rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of sorrow unfathomable at the foundations of the Earth.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!
J. R. R. Tolkien
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You cannot pass, he said. The orcs stood still, and a dead silence fell. I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.
J. R. R. Tolkien