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 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 creativity light creative 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 writing book art More and more I’ve become convinced that the great treasure to possess is the unknown. P. L. Travers convinced treasure 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 men book children I hate being good. -Mary Poppins P. L. Travers i-hate mary hate 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 hero feet life 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 grandmother knowing running Child and serpent, star and stone — all one. P. L. Travers stars stones children Once we have accepted the story we cannot escape the story's fate. P. L. Travers accepted fate stories 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 swim sea children 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 teacher book children What I want to know is this: Are the stars gold paper or is the gold paper stars? P. L. Travers stars paper gold 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 hug caring life 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 crosses want tree 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 cat moon kings Tea is balm for the soul, don't you agree? P. L. Travers agree soul tea 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 maturity book children There are worlds beyond worlds and times beyond times, all of them true, all of them real, and all of them (as children know) penetrating each other. P. L. Travers real children world
