Nancy Farmer Quotes & Sayings

Matt had to swallow hard to keep tears from forming. Fidelito had called him brother! — Nancy Farmer

People's souls are like gardens. You can't turn your back on someone because his garden's full of weeds. You have to give him water and lots of sunshine. — Nancy Farmer

Tendai remembered his last birthday. It seemed one shouldn't make wishes idly. Who knew which spirits were listening. He considered a moment and then thought, I wish for courage. Because with courage, you weren't afraid to look at the truth. You weren't afraid to ask questions or do the right thing. — Nancy Farmer

I think people have an instinct for a family. You look until you find a mother, a father, a sister, a brother. They don't have to be blood relatives. They just have to love you. And when you find them, you don't have to look anymore. — Nancy Farmer

Knowledge is a house that must be built from the ground up. We know how to make the roof. The information is useless if we don't understand the foundations on which it is to be placed. — Nancy Farmer

Oh, yes he does. He's a scientist, and they know everything. Religion is crap," declared Listen.
"You're the most obnoxious little brat I've ever met."
"Both of you be quiet, — Nancy Farmer

Life and death are in constant battle. There is no way in this world for happiness to exist alone ... — Nancy Farmer

No kindness is ever wasted, nor can we ever tell how much good may come of it. — Nancy Farmer

She took to reading with a fervor so extreme, Baba Joseph had to take the books from her hands by force. 'Your eyes are not tractors. They are not meant to pull heavy loads,' he said sternly. — Nancy Farmer

Patience and love can do anything. — Nancy Farmer

Gods, if they're neglected, tend to fall asleep, but they never really go away. — Nancy Farmer

He has his good side and his bad side. Very dark indeed is his majesty when he wants to be. When he was young, he made a choice, like a tree does when it decides to grow one way or the other. He grew large and green until he shadowed over the whole forest, but most of his branches are twisted. — Nancy Farmer

How much wickedness could you do in the service of good before it turned into pure evil? — Nancy Farmer

A little extra forgiveness never hurts, said Matt, quoting one of Celia's favorite sayings. — Nancy Farmer

But I also know that to ignore joy while it lasts, in favor of lamenting one's fate, is a great crime. — Nancy Farmer

Before the next minute had passed, they had all fallen to the ground. Just like that. As though someone had reached inside and turned off a switch.
"What happened?" Matt asked, gasping.
I went from one person to the next, trying to wake them up, but they were all dead, wrote Daft Donald. — Nancy Farmer

I never hand in a book until it's completed. Richard Jackson then reads it and asks me to clarify murky points. We work very well together. He knows how hard to push, and I know how hard to push back. He's the only person who can criticize my work without me throwing a hissy fit. — Nancy Farmer

Tam Lin says rabbits give up when they're caught by coyotes [ ... ]. He says they consent to die because their animals and can't understand hope. But humans are different. They fight against death no matter how bad things seem, and sometimes, even when everything's against them, they win. — Nancy Farmer

Heroes, well, they don't live so long. But they're muy suave, and we all admire them. — Nancy Farmer

Does is make the dragon happy?" Matt asked.
"Does is make the dragon happy?" echoed Tam Lin. "Why, I never thought of that. I suppose it does. What other pleasure can a creature have whose life consists of making everyone else miserable? — Nancy Farmer

I love you," Matt said.
I love you, too," Maria replied. "I know that's a sin, and I'll probably go to hell for it."
If I have a soul, I'll go with you," promised Matt. — Nancy Farmer

I live in a 'sky island,' a unique mountain valley environment where half the animal species of North America can be found. — Nancy Farmer

Don't be angry," the Bard said. "Most people live inside a cage of their own expectations. It makes them feel safe. The world's a frightening place full of glory and wonder and, as we've both discovered, danger. Flying isn't for everyone. — Nancy Farmer

The other girls in the village never felt restless. Nhamo was like a pot of boiling water. 'I want ... I want ... ,' she whispered to herself, but she didn't know what she wanted and she had no idea how to find it. — Nancy Farmer

I am now writing a book called 'Far Enough,' very loosely based on my childhood. This is difficult because it forces me to remember people I loved who are gone. — Nancy Farmer

Slow people are just paying close attention. — Nancy Farmer

Matt discovered that no matter how terrified he'd been at first, it wasn't possible to stay terrified. It was as though his brain said, Okay. That's enough. Let's find something else to do. — Nancy Farmer

I could do it," Listen boasted. "Show me how and I could run the whole damn planet."
"You can't even reach the on button," said Cienfuegos. — Nancy Farmer

You get used to being evil. — Nancy Farmer

The high point of your life was when you knocked me down — Nancy Farmer

If you squat on a path, you'll get boils on your backside. — Nancy Farmer

It isn't healthy to care for someone who can never love you back. — Nancy Farmer

I am one for whom dangers are play-
things
One who empties men of their
strength as a nut from its shell
The charms you use I chop up for
relish on my porridge
Beware! I am a deadly mamba
Wrestler of legends
A hive of hornets
A man among men — Nancy Farmer

You don't have a soul, so you can't be baptized. All animals are like that. I think it's unfair and sometimes I don't believe it. After all, what would heaven be without birds or dogs or horses? And what about trees and flowers? They don't have souls either. Does that mean heaven looks like a cement parking lot? I suppose this is what the nuns call a theological problem. — Nancy Farmer

Look around you ... Feel the wind, smell the air. Listen to the birds and watch the sky. Tell me what's happening in the wide world. — Nancy Farmer

Most of all, it was the wild music that impressed Matt. It did the same thing that playing the piano had done when he was frightened and lonely. It took him into another world where only beauty existed and where he was sage from hatred and disappointment and death. — Nancy Farmer

My view of civilization is that there have always been small pockets of good, decent, kind people surrounded by corrupt and evil power structures. It's always a battle to stay on the side of good. — Nancy Farmer

Death must be fought with life, and that means courage and that means joy, — Nancy Farmer

Guardian angels guide the steps of idiots. — Nancy Farmer

The secret of successful education ... is finding out how a particular person learns — Nancy Farmer

humans are endlessly stupid and greedy. — Nancy Farmer

Just say no to pillaging. — Nancy Farmer

I am she who lifts the mountains
When she goes to hunt,
Who wears mamba for a headband
And a lion for a belt.
Beware!
I swallow elephants whole
And pick my teeth with rhinoceros horns,
I drink up rivers to get at the hippos.
Let them hear my words!
Nhamo is coming
And her hunger is great.
I am she who tosses trees
Instead of spears.
The ostrich is my pillow
And the elephant is my footstool!
I am Nhamo
Who makes the river my highway
And sends crocodiles scurrying into the reeds! — Nancy Farmer

I don't mind," he whispered. "If I had a soul, I'd probably wind up in hell anyway. — Nancy Farmer

That was the best kind of story: when the teller was as much under its spell as the listener. — Nancy Farmer

Always choose your bodyguard from another country, they find it harder to make alliance and betray you. — Nancy Farmer

I remembered what Olaf always said: You must never give up, even if you're falling off a cliff. You never know what might happen on the way down. — Nancy Farmer

I started writing 'The Lord of Opium' in 2008 and produced about 80 pages before disaster struck. Three eye operations nearly put an end to my career. — Nancy Farmer

Music has a tremendous effect on me. When it's playing, I can't think or do anything other than listen. But I can write to it. — Nancy Farmer

I'd guess that you have some purpose to fulfill and that is why you were saved. But don't get a swelled head over it. A cabbage has a purpose when someone needs to make soup. — Nancy Farmer

No one can tell the difference between a clone and a human. That's because there isn't any difference. The idea of clones being inferior is a filthy lie. — Nancy Farmer

Quests always have their ups and downs,' rumbled the giant. 'The point is never to give up, even if you're falling off a cliff. You never know what might happen on the way to the bottom. — Nancy Farmer

I always say the truth is best even when we find it unpleasant. Any rat in a sewer can lie. It's how rats are. It's what makes them rats. But a human doesn't run and hide in dark places, because he's something more. Lying is the most personal act of cowardice there is. — Nancy Farmer

Tom is a filthy little pustule. If you quote me, I'll deny it! — Nancy Farmer

For purely selfish reasons, the old man had preserved what the rest of the world had destroyed. — Nancy Farmer

When you're small, you can choose which way to grow. If you're kind and decent, you grow into a kind and decent man. The idea that if you were mean, you might stay mean forever had never occurred to him. — Nancy Farmer

As for asking Tam Lin, Matt didn't know how to bring up the subject. By the way, is anyone planning to cut me up into T-bone steaks? Even more terrifying was the bodyguard's possible answer: You hit the nail on the head there, laddie. I always said you were bright as a button. — Nancy Farmer

After all, what is suffering but an awareness of suffering? — Nancy Farmer

Power's a strange thing, lad. It's a drug people like me crave it. — Nancy Farmer

She would drink until the trembling stopped. Then she would wilt over the piano like one of Celia's spinaches when Tam Lin forgot to water the garden. — Nancy Farmer