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Everyone must imagine his own snakes because no one else's snakes can ever be as awful.

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
Imagine
Everyone
Else
Ever
Must
Snakes
Awful

More quotes by Tove Jansson

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I need to write down my observations. Even the tiniest ones they're the most important.
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Everything's much too big here,' thought Moominmamma. 'Or perhaps I'm too small.
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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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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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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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It was a particularly good evening to begin a book.
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It's funny about love', Sophia said. 'The more you love someone, the less he likes you back.' 'That's very true,' Grandmother observed. 'And so what do you do?' 'You go on loving,' said Sophia threateningly. 'You love harder and harder.
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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]
Tove Jansson
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There's no need to imagine that you're a wondrous beauty, because that's what you are.
Tove Jansson
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It's risky to talk about one's most secret dreams a bit too early.
Tove Jansson
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You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.
Tove Jansson
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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.
Tove Jansson
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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.
Tove Jansson
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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 makes a trip by day, but by night one sets out on a journey.
Tove Jansson
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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.
Tove Jansson