“What makes you a real girl or boy is that no one laughs at you. If you are imitation or unreal, the rules give you a right to exist provided you do what the real ones or brutes say. What makes you into me or Charles Morgan is that the rules allow all the girls to be better than me and all the boys better than Charles Morgan.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
“He started every entry with I got up. It meant, I hate this school. When he wrote I do not like porridge, that was actually true, but porridge was his code-word for Simon Silverson. Simon was porridge at breakfast, potatoes at lunch, and bread at tea. All the other other he hated had code-words too. Dan Smith was cornflakes, cabbage, and butter. Theresa was milk.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
“You've probably all had those kinds of dreams that are like usual life, except that a lot of things are not the same, and you seem to know the future in them. Well, this is because these other worlds where two things can happen spread out from our world like rainbows, and sort of flow into one another-”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
“Can't you just keep your big mouth shut?" Brian said furiously to Nan. He pointed to Chrestomanci. "How do we know he's safe? For all we know, he could be the devil that you summoned up!"
"Oh, you flatter me, Brian," Chrestomanci said.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
“Mr. Crossley suddenly wondered why he was why he was worrying about the note. It was only a joke, after all. He cleared his throat. Everyone looked up hopefully. 'Somebody,' said Mr. Crossley, 'seems to have sent me a Halloween message.' And he read out the note: 'SOMEONE IN THIS CLASS IS A WITCH.'
6B thought this was splendid news. Hands shot up all over the room like a bed of beansprouts.
'It's me, Mr. Crossley!'
'Mr. Crossley, I'm the witch!'
'Can I be the witch, Mr. Crossley?'
'Me, Mr. Crossley, me, me, me!”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
“When you grow up to be an author and write books, you'll think you're making the books up, but they'll all really be true, somewhere.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
“Charles realized that if he were going to apologize to Chrestomanci, he had better do it at once. He turned around to say it. But the folds had already rippled flat and nothing was the same anymore....”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
“What did you do?" said Charles.
"You know that night all our shoes went into the hall," said Nirupam. "Well, we had a feast that night. Dan Smith made me get up the floorboards and get the food out. He says I have no right to be so large and so weak," Nirupam said resentfully, "and I was hating him for it, when I took the boards up and found a pair of running shoes, with spikes, hidden there with the food. I turned those shoes into a chocolate cake. I knew Dan was so greedy that he would eat it all himself. And he did eat it. He didn't let anyone else have any. You may have noticed that he wasn't quite himself the next day."
So much had happened to Charles that particular day, that he could not remember Dan seeming anything at all. He didn't have the heart to explain all the trouble Nirupam had caused him. "Those were my spikes," he said sadly. He wobbled along on the mop rather awed at the thought of iron spikes passing through Dan's stomach. "He must have a digestion like an ostrich!"
"The spikes were turned into cherries," said Nirupam. "The soles were the cream. The shoes as a whole became what is called a Black Forest gateau.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
“Before long, everyone was giving him answers, and feeling a little superior, because it was really remarkable the number of things Chrestomanci seemed not to know. He had heard of Hitler, though he asked Brian to refresh his memory about him, but he had only the haziest notion about Gandhi or Einstein, and he had never heard of Walt Disney or reggae.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
“How does she keep it up? How can Miss Hodge be a teacher and not use witchcraft at all? I use it all the time. How else can I have eyes in the back of my head?'
'One of the great mysteries of our time,' Chrestomanci agreed.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
“Evidently this was the kind of man
that Estelle fell instantly in love with.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
“THE OLD LAB was not used for anything much except detention. But there was still a faint smell of old science clinging to it, from generations of experiments which had gone wrong.”
― Diana Wynne Jones, quote from Witch Week
Diana Wynne Jones
Born place: in London, England, The United Kingdom
Born date August 16, 1934
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“It’s because the ignorant bastards consider me a foreigner, even though I was born in South Carolina and some of them were born in Europe,” he complained hotly to Rob J. “They don’t trust me. They hate the Irish and the Jews and the Chinese and the Italians, and God knows who all, for coming to America too late. They hate the French and the Mormons on general principles. And they hate the Indians for being in America too early. Who the hell do they like?” Rob grinned at him. “Why, Jay … they like themselves! They think they are just right, having had the sensibility to arrive at exactly the correct time,” he said.”
― Noah Gordon, quote from Shaman
“While working at a sawmill, he slipped and fell against the whirring blade, which tore through his upper body at the shoulder, creating a hole so large that his internal organs were exposed—one witness claimed he could see the poor man’s beating heart—and leaving his arm attached by just a few strands of glistening sinew. The millworkers bound the injuries as best they could and carried Lindbergh home, where he lay in silent agony for three days awaiting the arrival of a doctor from St. Cloud, forty miles away. When the doctor at last reached him, he took off the arm and sewed up the gaping cavity. It was said that Lindbergh made almost no sound. Remarkably, August Lindbergh recovered and lived another thirty years. Stoicism became the Lindbergh family’s most cultivated trait.”
― Bill Bryson, quote from One Summer: America, 1927
“I explained to him, however, that my nature was such that my physical needs often got in the way of my feelings.”
― Albert Camus, quote from The Outsider
“When Olivia leaves the room, I move to follow, but Franny steps into my path.
“Oh no, you stay here.”
“Simon,” I say with a scowl, “collect your wife before I say something I’ll regret.”
But Franny just tilts her head, appraising me. “I used to think you were a selfish bastard, but I’m starting to believe you’re just a fool. A double-damned idiot. I’m not sure which is worse.”
“Then I guess it’s good that I don’t give a turtle’s arse-crack about your opinion of me.”
― Emma Chase, quote from Royally Screwed
“When questing, one must be fully committed to one’s task, lest one become distracted and conquered”
― Lynette Noni, quote from Akarnae
Boy Nobody
Just My Rotten Luck
Old School
Hardline
Death Is a Lonely Bu...
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