I do feel very strongly that this is one of the things which people need encouragement to sort out, because I have this very strong feeling that everybody is probably a genius at something, it's just a question of finding this.

Diana Wynne Jones

Categorized in : People Strong Encouragement

Pray use both cats as sponges if it pleases you, infatuated infantryman.

Diana Wynne Jones

cat use praying

So you were going to rescue the Prince! Why did you pretend to run away? To deceive the Witch?" "Not likely! I'm a coward. Only way I can do something this frightening is to tell myself I'm not doing it!

Diana Wynne Jones

coward running way

Calcifer," Sophie said, "I shall have to break your contract. Will it kill you?" "It would if anyone else broke it," Calcifer said hoarsely. "That's why I asked you to do it.

Diana Wynne Jones

sophie broke break

I'll show you how," Peter said. "Stop hiding behind your ignorance.

Diana Wynne Jones

peter hiding ignorance

It's just as I thought," she said. "I prefer you to every single one of these. Some of these look far too proud of themselves, and some look selfish and cruel. You are unassuming and kind. I intend to ask my father to marry me to you, instead of to the Prince in Ochinstan. Would you mind?

Diana Wynne Jones

selfish mind father

Busy old fool, unruly Sophie

Diana Wynne Jones

sophie fool busy

I don’t think I will get married,” Polly said as she stood up. “I’m going to train to be a hero instead.

Diana Wynne Jones

married hero thinking

Theseus made unscrupulous use of Ariadne (whom he left on an island where Bacchus later found her-I always think that really meant she took to drink, poor girl).

Diana Wynne Jones

girl islands thinking

It's amazing the way one can take a step ten and a half miles long and still always land in a cowpat.

Diana Wynne Jones

land half long

There were horrendous, dramatic, violent quantities of green slime—oodles of it. It covered Howl completely. It draped his head and shoulders in sticky dollops, heaping on his knees and hands, trickling in glops down his legs, and dripping off the stool in sticky strands. It was in oozing ponds and crawling pools over most of the floor. Long fingers of it had crept into the hearth. It smelled vile.

Diana Wynne Jones

heart long hands

I could cut a star out of paper and drop it.

Diana Wynne Jones

cutting stars paper

It's a lucky child that knows that they're a genius, unaimed and all that.

Diana Wynne Jones

genius lucky children

Imagination doesn’t just mean making things up. It means thinking things through, solving them, or hoping to do so, and being just distant enough to be able to laugh at things that are normally painful. Head teachers would call this escapism, but they would be entirely wrong. I would call fantasy the most serious, and the most useful, branch of writing there is. And this is why I don’t, and never would, write Real Books.

Diana Wynne Jones

real teacher book

You have no right to make jigsaws of people.

Diana Wynne Jones

howls-moving-castle jigsaw people

No I am not all right!” Chrestomanci said, after five minutes of this. “I have worldwide blisters. I need a shave. I’m tired out and I haven’t had anything to eat since breakfast yesterday. Would you feel alright in my position?

Diana Wynne Jones

tired yesterday needs

I’m beginning to think I’ve led a much too sheltered life.

Diana Wynne Jones

sheltered-lives thinking

Oh confound that gray-and-scarlet suit!" Sophie said. "I refuse to believe that I was the one that got caught with it!

Diana Wynne Jones

sophie suits believe

And you're too nice," he added, above the lap-lap of the water and the patter of sand on the water-lily leaves. "I was relying on you being too jealous to let that demon near the place.

Diana Wynne Jones

water-lily jealous nice

Do you mind not being so kind and obedient? It makes me nervous.

Diana Wynne Jones

nervous kind mind

I only want to catch you,” Michael explained. “I won’t hurt you.” “No! No!” the star crackled desperately. “That’s wrong! I’m supposed to die!” “But I could save you if you’d let me catch you,” Michael told it gently. “No!” cried the star. “I’d rather die!

Diana Wynne Jones

stars hurt want