I think the idea of Mary Poppins has been blowing in and out of me, like a curtain at a window, all my life. P. L. Travers More Quotes by P. L. Travers More Quotes From P. L. Travers Don't you know that everybody's got a Fairyland of their own? P. L. Travers knows With the word creative we stand under a mystery. And from time to time that mystery, as if it were a sun, sends down upon one head or another, a sudden shaft of light - by grace, one feels, rather than deserving, for it always is something given, free, unsought, unexpected. P. L. Travers creativitylightcreative A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns. P. L. Travers writingbookart More and more I’ve become convinced that the great treasure to possess is the unknown. P. L. Travers convincedtreasure Children's books are looked on as a sideline of literature. A special smile. They are usually thought to be associated with women. I was determined not to have this label of sentimentality put on me so I signed by my intials, hoping people wouldn't bother to wonder if the books were written by a man, woman or kangaroo. P. L. Travers menbookchildren I hate being good. -Mary Poppins P. L. Travers i-hatemaryhate Could it be ... that the hero is one who is willing to set out, take the first step, shoulder something? Perhaps the hero is one who puts his foot upon a path not knowing what he may expect from life but in some way feeling in his bones that life expects something of him. P. L. Travers herofeetlife Perhaps we are born knowing the tales of our grandmothers and all their ancestral kin continually run in our blood repeating them endlessly, and the shock they give us when we first bear them is not of surprise but of recognition. P. L. Travers grandmotherknowingrunning Child and serpent, star and stone — all one. P. L. Travers starsstoneschildren The Irish, as a race, have the oral tradition in their blood. A direct question to them is an anathema, but in other cases, a mere syllable of a hero's name will elicit whole chapters of stories. P. L. Travers raceheroblood Once we have accepted the story we cannot escape the story's fate. P. L. Travers acceptedfatestories When I was a child, love to me was what the sea is to a fish: something you swim in while you are going about the important affairs of life. P. L. Travers swimseachildren I don't think that children, if left to themselves, feel that there is an author behind a book, a somebody who wrote it. Grown-ups have fostered this quotient of identity, particularly teachers. Write a letter to your favorite author and so forth. When I was a child I never realized that there were authors behind books. Books were there as living things, with identities of their own. P. L. Travers teacherbookchildren What I want to know is this: Are the stars gold paper or is the gold paper stars? P. L. Travers starspapergold And all the time he was enjoying his badness, hugging it to him as though it were a friend, and not caring a bit. P. L. Travers hugcaringlife Trouble trouble and it will trouble you. P. L. Travers trouble If you want to find Cherry-Tree Lane all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the cross-roads. P. L. Travers crosseswanttree Who are you?" she inquired, as the cat passed by. I'm the cat that looked at a king," he replied. And I," she remarked with a toss of her head, "am the cow that jumped over the moon." Is that so?" said the cat. "Whatever for?" The cow stared. She had never been asked that question before. And suddenly it occured to her that there might something else to do than jumping over moons. P. L. Travers catmoonkings Tea is balm for the soul, don't you agree? P. L. Travers agreesoultea You do not chop off a section of your imaginative substance and make a book specifically for children, for, if you are honest, you have no idea where childhood ends and maturity begins. It is all endless and all one. P. L. Travers maturitybookchildren
