“After all, reading is arguably a far more creative and imaginative process than writing; when the reader creates emotion in their head, or the colors of the sky during the setting sun, or the smell of a warm summer's breeze on their face, they should reserve as much praise for themselves as they do for the writer - perhaps more.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“Books may look like nothing more than words on a page, but they are actually an infinitely complex imaginotransference technology that translates odd, inky squiggles into pictures inside your head.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“Good. Item seven. The had had and that that problem. Lady Cavendish, weren’t you working on this?’
Lady Cavendish stood up and gathered her thoughts. ‘Indeed. The uses of had had and that that have to be strictly controlled; they can interrupt the imaginotransference quite dramatically, causing readers to go back over the sentence in confusion, something we try to avoid.’
‘Go on.’
‘It’s mostly an unlicensed-usage problem. At the last count David Copperfield alone had had had had sixty three times, all but ten unapproved. Pilgrim’s Progress may also be a problem due to its had had/that that ratio.’
‘So what’s the problem in Progress?’
‘That that had that that ten times but had had had had only thrice. Increased had had usage had had to be overlooked, but not if the number exceeds that that that usage.’
‘Hmm,’ said the Bellman, ‘I thought had had had had TGC’s approval for use in Dickens? What’s the problem?’
‘Take the first had had and that that in the book by way of example,’ said Lady Cavendish. ‘You would have thought that that first had had had had good occasion to be seen as had, had you not? Had had had approval but had had had not; equally it is true to say that that that that had had approval but that that other that that had not.’
‘So the problem with that other that that was that…?’
‘That that other-other that that had had approval.’
‘Okay’ said the Bellman, whose head was in danger of falling apart like a chocolate orange, ‘let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim’s Progress, had had had, had had had had. Had had had had TGC’s approval?’
There was a very long pause. ‘Right,’ said the Bellman with a sigh, ‘that’s it for the moment. I’ll be giving out assignments in ten minutes. Session’s over – and let’s be careful out there.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“Fiction wouldn't be much fun without its fair share of scoundrels, and they have to live somewhere.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“I have the death sentence in seven genres.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“Failure concentrates the mind wonderfully. If you don't make mistakes, you're not trying hard enough.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“I got Oedipus off the incest charge--technicality, of course--he didn't know it was his mother at the time. ”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“Who do readers expect to see when they pick up this book? Who has won the Most Troubled Romantic Lead at the BookWorld Awards seventy-seven times in a row? Me. All me.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“Anything devised by man has bureaucracy, corrpution and error hardwired at inception.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“Books" - Snell smiled - "are a kind of magic.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“Prices of semicolons, plot devices, prologues and inciting incidents continued to fall yesterday, lopping twenty points off the TomJones Index.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“We all aspire to be ourselves, an original character in a litany of fiction so vast that we know we cannot.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“To take so much punctuation in one hit initially sounds audacious, but perhaps the thief thought no one would notice as most readers never get that far into Ulysses—you will recall the theft of chapter sixty-two from Moby-Dick, where no one noticed?”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“«Silenzio in aula!» strillò il Coniglio Bianco con voce stridula.
«Mozzatele il capo!» strillò la Regina.
Il Re inforcò gli occhiali e si guardò intorno inquieto, per scoprire chi aveva parlato. La Regina gli diede di gomito e fece un cenno nella mia direzione.
«Tu, laggiù!» disse il Re. «Dovrai parlare molto presto, miss, miss...»
«Next» interloquì Coniglio Bianco dopo aver consultato la sua pergamena.
«Come?» replicò il Re un po' confuso. «Abbiamo già finito?»
«No, Vostra Maestà» rispose paziente il Coniglio Bianco «il suo nome è Next. Thursday Next».
«E magari pensi di essere spiritosa?»”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“To avoid a repeat of this near disaster, the Council of Genres took the only course of action open to them to ensure TGC would be too inefficient and unimaginative to pose a threat. They appointed a committee to run it.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“After all, reading is arguably a far more creative and imaginative process than writing; when the reader creates emotion in their head, or the colors of the sky during the setting sun, or the smell of a warm summer’s breeze on their face, they should reserve as much praise for themselves as they do for the writer—perhaps more.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“Failure concentrates the mind wonderfully. If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough.” I”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“- Зачем Мэгги мешает нашему счастью? - сердито спросила она. - У нас с моим дорогим Стивеном все было бы просто чудесно, так почему я должна страдать? Я, которая желала всем только добра, особенно Мэгги!
- Это называется "драма", - устало объяснил Хэвишем.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“Good. Item seven. The had had and that that problem. Lady Cavendish, weren’t you working on this?’ Lady Cavendish stood up and gathered her thoughts. ‘Indeed. The use of had had and that that has to be strictly controlled; they can interrupt the ImaginoTransference quite dramatically, causing readers to go back over the sentence in confusion, something we try to avoid.’ ‘Go on.’ ‘It’s mostly an unlicensed usage problem. At the last count David Copperfield alone had had had had sixty-three times, all but ten unapproved. Pilgrim’s Progress may also be a problem owing to its had had / that that ratio.’ ‘So what’s the problem in Progress?’ ‘That that had that that ten times but had had had had only thrice. Increased had had usage had had to be overlooked but not if the number exceeds that that that usage.’ ‘Hmm,’ said the Bellman. ‘I thought had had had had TGC’s approval for use in Dickens? What’s the problem?’ ‘Take the first had had and that that in the book by way of example,’ explained Lady Cavendish. ‘You would have thought that that first had had had had good occasion to be seen as had, had you not? Had had had approval but had had had not; equally it is true to say that that that that had had approval but that that other that that had not.’ ‘So the problem with that other that that was that—? ‘That that other-other that that had had approval.’ ‘Okay,’ said the Bellman, whose head was in danger of falling apart like a chocolate orange, ‘let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim’s Progress, which had had had, had had had had. Had had had had TGC’s approval?’ There was a very long pause.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
“He handed me a letter. I unfolded it and read:
Dear Mr Spratt,
It has come to our attention that you may be attempting to give up the booze and reconcile with your wife. While we approve of this as a plot device to generate more friction and inner conflicts, we most strongly advise you not to carry it through to a happy reconciliation, as this would put you in direct contravention of Rule 11C of the Union of Sad Loner Detective’s Code, as ratified by the Union of Literary Detectives, and it will ultimately result in your expulsion from the association with subsequent loss of benefits. I trust you will do the decent thing and halt this damaging and abnormal behaviour before it leads to your downfall.
PS. Despite repeated demands, you have failed to drive a classic car or pursue an unusual hobby. Please do so at once or face the consequences.”
― Jasper Fforde, quote from The Well of Lost Plots
Jasper Fforde
Born place: in London, England, The United Kingdom
See more on GoodReads
“I have a hunch that our obsession with photography arises from an unspoken pessimism; it is our nature to believe the good things will not last. . . But photos provide a false sense of security> like our flawed memory, they are guaranteed to fade. . . . We take photographs in order to remember, but it is in the nature of a photograph to forget (pg 157)”
― Michelle Richmond, quote from The Year of Fog
“It's hard to watch. Can't stand the pressure of that much hope.”
― Lisa McMann, quote from Dead to You
“Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, quote from The Wisdom of Life
“The sentiment behind the golden rule is great (treating others the way we wish to be treated ourselves). But nowadays we don’t even treat ourselves very well! We knowingly consume things that are bad for us, continue working at jobs we hate, and don’t spend half as much time relaxing as we do stressing. Come to think of it, we ARE treating others the way we treat ourselves: poorly! We feed our children junk food, opt for cheap instead of quality even when it matters, rarely give anyone our undivided attention, and demand a lot more from others than what is reasonable or even possible. Let’s try something new: let’s treat everybody as if we just found out they’re about to die. Why? Because it seems that’s the ONLY time we slow down enough to get a new perspective on life—either then or when we have a near-death experience ourselves. Be gentle, patient, kind and understanding. We’re all headed in the same direction, so let’s start treating each other better along the way!”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp Manuscript
“Maybe this is how it always is. Maybe someone always wants more. Maybe everyone has a time when they realise that they've been accidentally lying when they say I love you, I miss you, you're pretty, you're the prettiest one, I never want you to leave. Maybe this time ends and it all becomes true again, as true as you ever thought it was. Maybe this time does not end. If this time ends, it would be a smart decision to wait it out. If it does not end, then perhaps you should not wait, and you should find another person to whom you can say these things without lying. But perhaps it always happens, no matter which girl or boy you are trying to love, in which case you might as well stay where you are because you would repeat the same process with anyone else.”
― Haley Tanner, quote from Vaclav and Lena
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The Lonely Polygamis...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.
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