Quote

Lie on the bridge and watch the water flowing past. Or run, or wade through the swamp in your red boots. Or roll yourself up and listen to the rain falling on the roof. It's very easy to enjoy yourself.

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
Enjoy
Falling
Swamps
Fall
Red
Wade
Rain
Flowing
Easy
Watches
Bridge
Running
Watch
Roof
Past
Listen
Boots
Lying
Bridges
Water
Roll
Swamp

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I want your first trip to be with me. I want to show you cities and landscapes and teach you how to look at things in new ways and how to get along in places you don't already know inside out. I want to put some life in you.
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...by and by a change came: I started to muse about the shape of my nose. I put my trivial surroundings aside and mused more and more about myself, and I found this to be a bewitching occupation. I stopped asking and longed instead to speak of my thoughts and feelings. Alas, there was no one besides myself who found me interesting.
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There's no need to imagine that you're a wondrous beauty, because that's what you are.
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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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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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...now and then a giggling trail of mermaids appeared in our wake. We fed them oatmeal.
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It's risky to talk about one's most secret dreams a bit too early.
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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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Everyone must imagine his own snakes because no one else's snakes can ever be as awful.
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You can't always be friendly. It's impossible, there isn't the time.
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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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I'll have to calm down a bit. Or else I'll burst with happiness
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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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I need to write down my observations. Even the tiniest ones they're the most important.
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And all you can do is just read, she said. She raised her voice an screamed, You just read and read and read! Then she threw herself down on the table and wept.
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When Mats came in the evenings, they would drink tea in the kitchen while reading their books and talking about them. If Katri came in, they were quiet and waited for her to leave. The back door would close, and Katri would have gone. “Does your sister read our books?” Anna wanted to know. “No. She reads literature.
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Everything's much too big here,' thought Moominmamma. 'Or perhaps I'm too small.
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I mean, anyone can let Danger out but the really clever thing is finding somewhere for it to go afterwards.
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You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.
Tove Jansson