We cling to our fairy tales until the price for believing in them becomes too high. Ransom Riggs More Quotes by Ransom Riggs More Quotes From Ransom Riggs I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was. Ransom Riggs escaping dream home Sometimes it's better not to look back. Ransom Riggs sometimes looks I was here for a reason. There was something I was meant not simply to be, but to do- and it wasn't to run or hide or give up the minute things seemed terrifying and impossible. Ransom Riggs giving-up impossible running I liked this idea: that peculiarness wasn't a deficiency, but an abundance; that it wasn't we who lacked something normals had, but they who lacked peculiarness. That we were more, not less. Ransom Riggs deficiency abundance ideas What I believe when it comes to big things in life, there are no accidents. Everything happens for a reason. You are here for a reason - and it's not to fail and die. Ransom Riggs everything-happens-for-a-reason things-in-life believe If I'd kept my heart better armored, where would I be now? Ransom Riggs my-heart ifs heart When someone won't let you in, eventually you stop knocking. Ransom Riggs knocking I grew up feeling like a weirdo like many kids do. But I was lucky to find my own home for peculiar children. I went to a school for the gifted in Florida, and it was full of kids who - we were all strange together. And that was a real blessing. Ransom Riggs real home children There was a girl who could fly, a boy who had bees living inside him, a brother and sister who could lift boulders over their heads. Ransom Riggs girl brother boys If you must fail ... fail spectacularly! Ransom Riggs failure failing ifs Sometimes you just need to go through a door. Ransom Riggs doors sometimes needs I have an unusual hobby: I collect pictures of people I don't know. It started when I was a kid growing up in South Florida, the land of junk stores, garage sales, and flea markets, as a kind of coping mechanism. Ransom Riggs florida growing-up kids Our debt was too great and the words thank you too small. Ransom Riggs small-life debt life I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen. Ransom Riggs peculiar would-be ordinary I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen. The first of these came as a terrible shock and, like anything that changes you forever, split my life into halves: Before and After. Ransom Riggs half would-be forever Some truths are expressed best in the form of myth. Ransom Riggs myth form Maybe it was better, now and then, to wonder. Ransom Riggs divulge now-and-then wonder Every snapshot collector has obsessions. Some only collect photos of cars. Others like World War II, or babies, or old-timey girls in old-timey swimsuits. I happen to collect the weird stuff: photos that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up a little. The uncanny. Ransom Riggs girl baby war I've never really been interested in the vintage photos people pay lots of money for -- civil war tintypes or old daguerrotypes of famous people. Nor do I have any interest in the really gross, dark stuff that some people pay top-dollar, like post-mortem photos of babies (yuck) or press photos of old murder scenes or whatever. I collect in these little niches most other people don't care about -- dark-and-weird-but-fun -- and photos that have been written on, which a lot of sellers think hurts their value. All of which is good news for me! Ransom Riggs hurt fun baby I just like that balance of the real and the fantastical because as a reader and consumer of stories and fantasy, I always want to feel like I can find that world. Ransom Riggs balance real stories
