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They were always doing something. Quietly, without interruption, and with great concentration, they carried on with the hundred-and-one small things that made up their world.

Tove Jansson

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Tove Jansson
Age: 86 †
Born: 1914
Born: August 9
Died: 2001
Died: June 27
Cartoonist
Illustrator
Novelist
Painter
Writer
Helsingfors
Tove Marika Jansson
Tove M. Jansson
Something
Quietly
Always
Carried
Things
Concentration
World
Hundred
Small
Without
Great
Interruption
Made
Interruptions

More quotes by Tove Jansson

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But that's how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now, I just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are always free, because I don't have to carry a suitcase.
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The hemulen woke up slowly and recognised himself and wished he had been someone he didn't know.
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The lamp sizzled as it burned. It made everything seem close and safe, a little family circle they all knew and trusted. Outside this circle lay everything that was strange and frightening, and the darkness seemed to reach higher and higher and further and further away, right to the end of the world.
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...now and then a giggling trail of mermaids appeared in our wake. We fed them oatmeal.
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One summer morning at sunrise a long time ago I met a little girl with a book under her arm. I asked her why she was out so early and she answered that there were too many books and far too little time. And there she was absolutely right.
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But he thought all the strange words were beautiful, and he had never had a book of his own before.
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''Just think, never to be glad or disappointed. Never to like anyone and get cross at him and forgive him. Never to sleep or feel cold, never to make a mistake and have a stomach-ache and be cured from it, never to have a birthday party, drink beer, and have a bad conscience... How terrible.
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I'll have to calm down a bit. Or else I'll burst with happiness
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All men have parties and are pals who never let each other down. A pal can say terrible things which are forgotten the next day. A pal never forgives, he just forgets, and a woman forgives but never forgets. That's how it is. That's why women aren't allowed to have parties. Being forgiven is very unpleasant.
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I need to write down my observations. Even the tiniest ones they're the most important.
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I'm not sure I would have ever started to draw, let alone write, if my childhood hadn't been so happy. It was a mixture of comfort and adventure. An excellent mixture!
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Everyone must imagine his own snakes because no one else's snakes can ever be as awful.
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It's risky to talk about one's most secret dreams a bit too early.
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One makes a trip by day, but by night one sets out on a journey.
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Why are you in such a rush? Sophia asked, and her grandmother answered that it was a good idea to do things before you forgot that they had to be done.
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Someone who eats pancakes and jam can't be so awfully dangerous. You can talk to him.
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It was a particularly good evening to begin a book.
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... 'I've been doing everything for an awfully long time, and I've seen and lived as hard as I could, and it's been unbelievable, I tell you, unbelievable. But now I have the feeling everything's gliding away from me, and I don't remember, and I don't care, and yet now is right when I need it!'. [pp. 84-85]
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Everything's much too big here,' thought Moominmamma. 'Or perhaps I'm too small.
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You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.
Tove Jansson