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

I think we ought to live happily ever after.

Diana Wynne Jones

ever-after love thinking

To love someone enough to let them go, you had to let them go forever or you did not love them that much.

Diana Wynne Jones

love-someone enough forever

Writing for adults, you have to keep reminding them of what is going on. The poor things have given up using their brains when they read. Children you only need to tell things to once.

Diana Wynne Jones

brain writing children

Happiness isn't a thing. You can't go out and get it like a cup of tea. It's the way you feel about things.

Diana Wynne Jones

cups tea way

I mean one of the things about being alone is that you've no people to define yourself off, I mean, people are like all-round mirrors, because let's face it, we don't often see ourselves all round in a mirror anyway, do we.

Diana Wynne Jones

like-being-alone mirrors mean

If you take myth and folklore, and these things that speak in symbols, they can be interpreted in so many ways that although the actual image is clear enough, the interpretation is infinitely blurred, a sort of enormous rainbow of every possible colour you could imagine.

Diana Wynne Jones

rainbow speak way

Only thin, weak thinkers despise fairy stories. Each one has a true, strange fact hidden in it, you know, which you can find if you look.

Diana Wynne Jones

fairy-stories facts looks

Hope is the forward-looking part of memory.

Diana Wynne Jones

hope memories

I am a believer in free will. If my dog chooses to hate the whole human race except myself, it must be free to do so.

Diana Wynne Jones

hate race dog

Being a hero means ignoring how silly you feel.

Diana Wynne Jones

hero silly mean

It does not seem to me that I have the right to foist a story on people, most of whom are children who should be learning all the time, unless I am learning from it too.

Diana Wynne Jones

doe children people

After that, all the while Millie was eating the pudding... we both tore Christopher's character to shreds. It was wonderful fun.... He drove everyone mad in Chrestomanci Castle by insisting on silk shirts and exactly the right kind of pajamas. 'And he could get them right anyway by magic,' Millie told me, 'if he wasn't too lazy to learn how.... But the thing that really annoys me is the way he never bothers to learn a person's name. If a person isn't important to him, he always forgets their name.' When Millie said this, I realized that Christopher had never once forgotten my name.

Diana Wynne Jones

names fun character

...don't spoil my learning process!

Diana Wynne Jones

learning-process spoil process

Goats," said Maxwell Hyde, "are a special case. Mad as hatters, all of them.

Diana Wynne Jones

goats mad special

Don’t interrupt,’ one of the boys said. ‘He’ll lose his life.’ Seeing it was a matter of life and death, Sophie and Michael backed toward the door. But Howl, quite unperturbed at killing his nephew, strode over to the wall and pulled the boxes up by the roots.

Diana Wynne Jones

wall doors boys

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

encouragement strong people

Settle for what you can get, but first ask for the World.

Diana Wynne Jones

settling world firsts

Alas, poor Yorick!" he said. "She heard mermaids, so it follows that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark. I have caught an everlasting cold, but luckily I am terribly dishonest. I cling to that.

Diana Wynne Jones

mermaid denmark rotten

Then watch out. I warn you!" "That is very considerate of you," said Chrestomanci. "I like to be warned.

Diana Wynne Jones

considerate said watches

I hope your bacon burns.

Diana Wynne Jones