But I'm always dreaming, even when I'm awake; it is never finished." -the Lady Amalthea, from The Last Unicorn Peter S. Beagle More Quotes by Peter S. Beagle More Quotes From Peter S. Beagle Take me with you. For laughs, for luck, for the unknown. Take me with you. Peter S. Beagle take-melucklaughing You ever want to see real witchcraft, you watch people protecting their comfort, their beliefs. Peter S. Beagle realcomfortpeople Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale. Peter S. Beagle herowritinginspirational The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea. Peter S. Beagle eyenightfall Only to a magician is the world forever fluid, infinitely mutable and eternally new. Only he knows the secret of change, only he knows truly that all things are crouched in eagerness to become something else, and it is from this universal tension that he draws his power. Peter S. Beagle forevertimelife The true secret in being a hero lies in knowing the order of things. The swineherd cannot already be wed to the princess when he embarks on his adventures, nor can the boy knock on the witch's door when she is already away on vacation. The wicked uncle cannot be found out and foiled before he does something wicked. Things must happen when it is time for them to happen. Quests may not simply be abandoned; prophecies may not be left to rot like unpicked fruit; unicorns may go unrescued for a very long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story. Peter S. Beagle unclesherolying I am no king, and I am no lord, And I am no soldier at-arms," said he. "I'm none but a harper, and a very poor harper, That am come hither to wed with ye." "If you were a lord, you should be my lord, And the same if you were a thief," said she. "And if you are a harper, you shall be my harper, For it makes no matter to me, to me, For it makes no matter to me." "But what if it prove that I am no harper? That I lied for your love most monstrously?" "Why, then I'll teach you to play and sing, For I dearly love a good harp," said she. Peter S. Beagle soldierkingsplay Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story. Peter S. Beagle heroforeverlong You pile of stones, you waste, you desolation, I'll stuff you with misery till it comes out of your eyes. I'll change your heart into green grass, and all you love into a sheep. I'll turn you into a bad poet with dreams. Peter S. Beagle eyedreamheart I suppose I could understand it if men had simply forgotten unicorns, but not to see them at all, to look at them and see something else — what do they look to one another, then? What do trees look like to them, or houses, or real horses, or their own children? Peter S. Beagle horserealchildren Real magic can never be made by offering someone else's liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back. Peter S. Beagle sacrificereallife song of elli (old age) "What is plucked will grow again, What is slain lives on, What is stolen will remain What is gone is gone... What is sea-born dies on land, Soft is trod upon. What is given burns the hand - What is gone is gone... Here is there, and high is low; All may be undone. What is true, no two men know - What is gone is gone... Who has choices need not choose. We must, who have none. We can love but what we lose - What is gone is gone. Peter S. Beagle songmentwo I'll tell you something. Once I was very fond of a poem by Emily Dickinson or somebody. I only remember one line of it, but it goes, 'The soul selects her own society.' I used to tell it to everybody. Once I quoted it to a friend of mine, and he said, 'Maybe, but the body gets thrown into bed with the goddamnedest people. Peter S. Beagle soulsexpeople The last unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. Peter S. Beagle unicornwoodslasts There are no happy endings, because nothing ends. Peter S. Beagle unicornhappy-endingsends You were the one who taught me," he said. "I never looked at you without seeing the sweetness of the way the world goes together, or without sorrow for its spoiling. I became a hero to serve you, and all that is like you. Peter S. Beagle sorrowherotogether This creature is the Pooka. Pay no mind to the shape he wears, for he’s none of his own, and no soul either. Ware him ever, trust him never, but when the wind’s right he has his uses. Never forget that you will never know him. The Pooka’s mystery even to the Pooka. Peter S. Beagle soulmindwind It’s a rare man who is taken for what he truly is. Peter S. Beagle unicorntakenmen You have to be very deep to be dead, he thought, and I'm not. He began to have some concept of forever, and his mind shivered as his body had when he had wakened in the cold nights and thrust his hands between his thighs to keep warm. It will be a long night, he thought. Peter S. Beagle nightlonghands The magician stood erect, menacing the attackers with demons, metamorphoses, paralyzing ailments, and secret judo holds. Molly picked up a rock. Peter S. Beagle unicornrockssecret
