Quotes from James and the Giant Peach

“I'd rather be fried alive and eaten by Mexicans.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“My dear young fellow,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said gently, 'there are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven't started wondering about yet.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“Poor Earthworm,' the Ladybird said, whispering in James's ear. 'He loves to make everything into a disaster. He hates to be happy. He is only happy when he is gloomy.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“The walls were wet and sticky, and peach juice was dripping from the ceiling. James opened his mouth and caught some of it on his tongue. It tasted delicious.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven't even started wondering about yet.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“Well, maybe it started that way. As a dream, but doesn’t everything. Those buildings. These lights. This whole city. Somebody had to dream about it first. And maybe that is what I did. I dreamed about coming here, but then I did it.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“We may see a Creature with forty-nine heads
Who lives in the desolate snow,
And whenever he catches a cold (which he dreads)
He has forty-nine noses to blow.
'We may see the venomous Pink-Spotted Scrunch
Who can chew up a man with one bite.
It likes to eat five of them roasted for lunch
And eighteen for its supper at night.
'We may see a Dragon, and nobody knows
That we won't see a Unicorn there.
We may see a terrible Monster with toes
Growing out of the tufts of his hair.
'We may see the sweet little Biddy-Bright Hen
So playful, so kind and well-bred;
And such beautiful eggs! You just boil them and then
They explode and they blow off your head.
'A Gnu and a Gnocerous surely you'll see
And that gnormous and gnorrible Gnat
Whose sting when it stings you goes in at the knee
And comes out through the top of your hat.
'We may even get lost and be frozen by frost.
We may die in an earthquake or tremor.
Or nastier still, we may even be tossed
On the horns of a furious Dilemma.
'But who cares! Let us go from this horrible hill!
Let us roll! Let us bowl! Let us plunge!
Let's go rolling and bowling and spinning until
We're away from old Spiker and Sponge!”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“Come right up close to me and I will show you something wonderful.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven't started wondering about yet.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“Everybody was feeling happy now. The sun was shining brightly out of a soft blue sky and the day was calm. The giant peach, with the sunlight glinting on its side, was like a massive golden ball sailing upon a silver sea.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“We are now about to visit the most marvelous places and see the most wonderful things!”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“And the money came rolling into the pockets of the two greedy aunts. But while all this excitement was going on outside, poor James was forced to stay locked in his bedroom, peeping through the bars of his window at the crowds below. “The disgusting little brute will only get in everyone’s way if we let him wander about,” Aunt Spiker had said early that morning. “Oh, please!” he had begged. “I haven’t met any other children for years and years and there are going to be lots of them down there for me to play with. And perhaps I could help you with the tickets.” “Cut it out!” Aunt Sponge had snapped. “Your Aunt Spiker and I are about to become millionaires, and the last thing we want is the likes of you messing things up and getting in the way.” Later, when the evening of the first day came and the people had all gone home, the aunts unlocked James’s door and ordered him to go outside and pick up all the banana skins and orange peel and bits of paper that the crowd had left behind. “Could I please have something to eat first?” he asked. “I haven’t had a thing all day.” “No!” they shouted, kicking him out the door. “We’re too busy to make food! We are counting our money!”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“Then they would roll these handfuls of cloud in their fingers until they turned into what looked like large white marbles. Then they would toss the marbles to one side and quickly grab more bits of cloud and start over again.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“Hiçbir yerden tek ses bile duyulmuyordu. Şeftalinin üzerinde yolculuk yapmak hiç de bir uçak yolculuğuna benzemiyordu. Uçak gökyüzünde patırtılar, gürültüler çıkararak hareket eder ve o kocaman bulut dağlarına gizlenmiş duran bir şeyler varsa, uçak gelirken koşup saklanırlar. İşte bu yüzden, uçakla yolculuk edenler hiçbir şey göremezler.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“They also talked about themselves, each one saying how beautiful she thought she was. Aunt Sponge had a long-handled mirror on her lap, and she kept picking it up and gazing at her own hideous face.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“- ¡Lo que haces es reptar!
- Me deslizo, dijo orgulloso el Gusano.
- Eres un bicho viscoso, replicó el Ciempipes.
- No soy un bicho viscoso - dijo el Gusano -. Soy una criatura útil y apreciada. Pregúntale a cualquier jardinero.”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“Nothing except the roots of the old peach tree…and a whole lot of earthworms and centipedes and insects living in the soil. But”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“beautiful she thought she was. Aunt Sponge had a long-handled mirror on her lap, and she kept picking it up and gazing at her own hideous face. ‘I look and smell,’ Aunt Sponge declared, ‘as lovely as a rose! Just feast your eyes upon my face, observe my shapely nose! Behold my heavenly silky locks! And if I take off both my socks You’ll see my dainty toes.’ ‘But don’t forget,’ Aunt Spiker cried, ‘how much your tummy shows!”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

“Get up at once, you lazy little beast!”
― Roald Dahl, quote from James and the Giant Peach

About the author

Popular quotes

“Did they ruin your mind when they ruined your eyes, Mr Newton?’ Newton”
― Walter Tevis, quote from The Man Who Fell to Earth

“Over time, some ideas do cross the repugnance barrier to become reality. Charging interest on loans. Selling human sperm and eggs. Profiting from a loved one’s premature death. This last example of course describes how life insurance works. Today it is standard practice to wager on your own death in order to provide for your family. Until the mid-nineteenth century, life insurance was considered “a profanation,” as the sociologist Viviana Zelizer writes, “which transformed the sacred event of death into a vulgar commodity.”
― Steven D. Levitt, quote from SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

“Su rabia y pérdida, la entiendo perfectamente, y no la culpo en lo más mínimo. No hay peor sensación que tener todo tu mundo destrozado y que no haya nada que puedas hacer para detenerlo. Sentirte en completa y absoluta miseria, y mirar alrededor y ver un mundo que en realidad no da una mierda por ti... eso te golpea a un nivel que agradezco a los dioses no puedas entender o imaginar. Porque nadie debería conocer ese tipo de infierno. Estás perdido en el dolor, gritando a pleno pulmón pidiendo ayuda y nadie te escucha. A nadie le importa. Ellos siguen con sus putrefactas vidas, ajenos a tu agonía. Y cuando llega el momento en que te das cuenta de lo solo que estás... de lo poco que les importas a otras personas, pierdes todo el funcionamiento cognitivo. Te conviertes en un animal rabioso. Todo lo que importa entonces es que les hagas comprender tu dolor. Sacarlos de su ciega autocomplacencia para que compartan ese infierno tuyo. En ese momento, quieres sentir su sangre en las manos. Saborearla en tus labios. Bañarte en ella hasta estar borracho y tener la piel arrugada. Ese es el lugar de locura que vive profundamente dentro de todos. La mayoría de la gente puede tocarlo una, quizás dos veces en su vida, pero jamás llegan a traspasarlo.”
― Sherrilyn Kenyon, quote from Time Untime

“They all had to do something: they had to make a start in life; they had to go through life. Even though a single hour can be so long.”
― Herman Koch, quote from The Dinner

“برات نوشتم دیگه طاقت ندارم بشنوم که همه چیز تقصیر ژنرالا و مایه دارا و صاحبای قدرته! پس ما چه کاره ایم؟ اسم و رسم و شماره شناسنامه هایی که فقط به درد انتخابات و جنگا می خورن؟ یه ابزار تو دست مذهبیا و ایسما و ایدئولوژیا؟”
― Oriana Fallaci, quote from A Man

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.