Quote

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.

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
Free
Away
Hands
Suitcase
Look
Suitcases
Looks
Wanting
Always
Carry
Things
Head
Start

More quotes by Tove Jansson

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It's risky to talk about one's most secret dreams a bit too early.
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Quite, quite,' she thought with a little sigh. 'It's always like this in their adventures. To save and be saved. I wish somebody would write a story sometime about the people who warm up the heroes afterward.
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...now and then a giggling trail of mermaids appeared in our wake. We fed them oatmeal.
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I don't want to hear about them any more. I could vomit on the Moomintrolls.
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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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Gathering is peculiar, because you see nothing but what you're looking for. If you're picking raspberries, you see only what's red, and if you're looking for bones you see only the white. No matter where you go, the only thing you see is bones.
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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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One can't be too dangerous, if they like to eat pancakes. Especially with jam on it.
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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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She started thinking about all the euphemisms for death, all the anxious taboos that had always fascinated her. It was too bad you could never have an intelligent discussion on the subject. People were either too young or too old, or else they didn't have time.
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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.
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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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It was a particularly good evening to begin a book.
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Everything's much too big here,' thought Moominmamma. 'Or perhaps I'm too small.
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I need to write down my observations. Even the tiniest ones they're the most important.
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You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.
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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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The hemulen woke up slowly and recognised himself and wished he had been someone he didn't know.
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It’s only the sea,’ said Moomintroll. ‘Every wave that dies on the beach sings a little song to a shell. But you mustn’t go inside because it’s a labyrinth and you may never come out again.
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But he thought all the strange words were beautiful, and he had never had a book of his own before.
Tove Jansson