Norton Juster Quotes & Sayings

And that's why people no longer care which words they use as long as they use lots of them. — Norton Juster

Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you're going. — Norton Juster

How can you see something that isn't there?" yawned the Humbug, who wasn't fully awake yet.
"Sometimes, it's much simpler than seeing things that are,"he said. "For instance, if something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn't there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That's why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones."
"Then where is Reality?" barked Tock.
"Right here,"cried Alec, waving his arms. — Norton Juster

But I find the best things I do, I do when I'm trying to avoid doing something else I'm supposed to be doing. You know, you're working on something. You get bugged, or you lose your enthusiasm or something. So you turn to something else with an absolute vengeance. — Norton Juster

And now," he continued, speaking to Milo, "where were you on the night of July 27?"
"What does that have to do with it?" asked Milo.
"It's my birthday, that's what," said the policeman as he entered "Forgot my birthday" in his little book. "Boys always forget other people's birthdays. — Norton Juster

Expect everything so that nothing comes unexpected. — Norton Juster

Why, did you know that there are almost as many kinds of stillness as there are sounds? But, sadly enough, no one pays any attention to them these days. — Norton Juster

Now and then, though, someone does begin to grow differently. Instead of down, his feet grow up toward the sky. But we do our best to discourage awkward things like that."
"What happens to them?" insisted Milo.
"Oddly enough, they often grow ten times the size of everyone else," said Alec thoughtfully, "and I've heard that they walk among the stars. — Norton Juster

But it's not just learning things that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things at all that matters. — Norton Juster

I am the Terrible Trivium, demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit. — Norton Juster

Of course, if you've ever gotten a surprise package, you can imagine how puzzled and excited Milo was; and if you've never gotten one, pay close attention, because someday you might. — Norton Juster

People always ask about my influences, and they cite a bunch of people I've never heard of. — Norton Juster

Ah, this is fine," he cried triumphantly, holding up a small medallion on a chain. He dusted it off, and engraved on one side were the words "WHY NOT?" "That's a good reason for almost anything - a bit used perhaps, but still quite serviceable. — Norton Juster

What you can do is often a matter of what you will do. — Norton Juster

EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR THE BEST. — Norton Juster

And when I'm writing, I write a lot anyway. I might write pages and pages of conversation between characters that don't necessarily end up in the book, or in the story I'm working on, because they're simply my way of getting to know the characters. — Norton Juster

And Milo, full of thoughts and questions, curled up on the pages of tomorrow's music and eagerly awaited the dawn. — Norton Juster

Can you spell everything?" asked Milo admiringly.
"Just about," replied the bee with a hint of pride in his voice. "You see, years ago I was just an ordinary bee minding my own business, smelling flowers all day, and occasionally picking up part-time work in people's bonnets. Then one day I realized that I'd never amount to anything without an education and, being naturally adept at spelling, I decided that - — Norton Juster

I wouldn't eat too many of those [half-baked ideas] if I were you. They may look good, but you can get terribly sick of them."
-Tock — Norton Juster

When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he'd even bothered. — Norton Juster

And, most of all, of how much could be accomplished with just a little thought. — Norton Juster

Why is it,' he said quietly, 'that quite often even the things which are correct just don't seem to be right? — Norton Juster

There are good books and there are bad books, period, that's the distinction. — Norton Juster

For always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many." - Which Macabre — Norton Juster

Oh dear, all those words again," thought Milo as he climbed into the wagon with Tock and the cabinet members. "How are you going to make it move? It doesn't have a
" "Be very quiet," advised the duke, "for it goes without saying. — Norton Juster

But that's just as bad," protested Milo. "You mean just as good," corrected the Humbug. "Things which are equally bad are also equally good. Try to look at the bright side of things." "I don't know which side of anything to look at," protested Milo. "Everything is so confusing and all your words only make things worse. — Norton Juster

Why, did you know that if a beaver two feet long with a tail a foot and a half long can build a dam twelve feet high and six feet wide in two days, all you would need to build Boulder Dam is a beaver sixty-eight feet long with a fifty-one-foot tail?"
"Where would you find a beaver that big?" grumbled the Humbug as his pencil point snapped.
"I'm sure I don't know," he replied, "but if you did, you'd certainly know what to do with him. — Norton Juster

What you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do. — Norton Juster

Mirages are things that aren't really there that you can see very clearly."
"How do you see something that isn't there?" ...
"sometimes it's much simpler than seeing things that are" ... — Norton Juster

I warned you; I warned you I was the Senses Taker," sneered the Senses Taker. "I help people find what they're not looking for, hear what they're not listening for, run after what they're not chasing, and smell what isn't even there. And, furthermore," he cackled, hopping around gleefully on his stubby legs, "I'll steal your sense of purpose, take your sense of duty, destroy your sense of proportion - and, but for one thing, you'd be helpless yet."
"What's that?" asked Milo fearfully.
"As long as you have the sound of laughter," he groaned unhappily, "I cannot take your sense of humor - and, with it, you've nothing to fear from me. — Norton Juster

They walked for a while, all silent in their thoughts, until they reached the car and Alec drew a fine telescope from his shirt and handed it to Milo.
"Carry this with you on your journey," he said softly, "for there is much worth noticing that often escapes the eye. Through it you can see everything from the tender moss in a sidewalk crack to the glow of the farthest star - and, most important of all, you can see things as they really are, not just as they seem to be. It's my gift to you. — Norton Juster

AHA!" interrupted Officer Shrift, making another note in his little book. "Just as I thought: boys are the cause of everything. — Norton Juster

The only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort. — Norton Juster

changes are so frightening. — Norton Juster

Oh, don't worry about that," said the Mathemagician as he scooped up the pieces. "We use the broken ones for fractions. — Norton Juster

Rhyme and reason answer all problems — Norton Juster

Today people use as many words as they can and think themselves very wise for doing so. For always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many. — Norton Juster

No one paid any attention to how things looked, and as they moved faster and faster everything grew uglier and dirtier, and as everything grew uglier and dirtier they moved faster and faster, and at last a very strange thing began to happen. Because nobody cared, the city slowly began to disappear. Day by day the buildings grew fainter and fainter, and the streets faded away, until at last it was entirely invisible. There was nothing to see at all. — Norton Juster

When you're very young and you learn something - a fact, a piece of information, whatever - it doesn't connect to anything. — Norton Juster

Many of the things which can never be, often are. — Norton Juster

One of the problems you have when you read with kids is that once they like something they want you to read it a hundred times. — Norton Juster

Being lost is not a matter of knowing where you are. It's a matter of knowing where you aren't. — Norton Juster

There are other advantages," continued the child. "For instance, if one rat were cornered by nine cats, on the average, each cat would be ten percent rat and the rat would be ninety percent cat. If you happened to be a rat, you can see how much nicer it would make things. — Norton Juster

There's lots to do; we have a very busy schedule - "At 8 o'clock we get up, and then we spend "From 8 to 9 daydreaming. "From 9 to 9:30 we take our early midmorning nap. "From 9:30 to 10:30 we dawdle and delay. "From 10:30 to 11:30 we take our late early morning nap. "From 11:30 to 12:00 we bide our time and then eat lunch. "From 1:00 to 2:00 we linger and loiter. "From 2:00 to 2:30 we take our early afternoon nap. "From 2:30 to 3:30 we put off for tomorrow what we could have done today. "From 3:30 to 4:00 we take our early late afternoon nap. "From 4:00 to 5:00 we loaf and lounge until dinner. "From 6:00 to 7:00 we dillydally. "From 7:00 to 8:00 we take our early evening nap, and then for an hour before we go to bed at 9:00 we waste time. "As you can see, that leaves almost no time for brooding, lagging, plodding, or procrastinating, and if we stopped to think or laugh, we'd never get nothing done. — Norton Juster

Don't try to leave for there's so very much to do, and you still have over eight hundred years to go on the first job.' 'But why do only unimportant things?' 'Think of all the trouble it saves. If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing. — Norton Juster

He punctuated this last thought with such a deep sigh that a house sparrow singing near by stopped and rushed home to be with his family. — Norton Juster

Things which are equally bad are also equally good. Try to look at the bright side of things.
- Humbug — Norton Juster

But why do only unimportant things?" asked Milo, who suddenly remembered how much time he spent each day doing them.
"Think of all the trouble it saves," the man explained, and his face looked as if he'd be grinning an evil grin
if he could grin at all. "If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won't have the time. For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing, and if it weren't for that dreadful magic staff, you'd never know how much time you were wasting. — Norton Juster

We never choose which words to use, for as long as they mean what they mean to mean, we don't care if they make sense or nonsense. — Norton Juster

You must excuse my gruff conduct," the watchdog said, after they'd been driving for some time, "but you see it's traditional for watchdogs to be ferocious. — Norton Juster

Besides, being lost is never a matter of not knowing where you are; it's a matter of not knowing where you aren't - and I don't care at all about where I'm not. — Norton Juster

What you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow. — Norton Juster

It was really written as most, I think, books are by writers - for themselves. There was something that just had to be written, in a way that it had to be written. If you know what I mean. — Norton Juster

For instance," said the boy again, "if Christmas trees were people and people were Christmas trees, we'd all be chopped down, put up in the living room, and covered in tinsel, while the trees opened our presents."
"What does that have to do with it?" asked Milo.
"Nothing at all," he answered, "but it's an interesting possibility, don't you think? — Norton Juster

The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that. — Norton Juster

So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible. — Norton Juster

You must never feel badly about making mistakes ... as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons. — Norton Juster

Now, remember: they're not for eating, but for listening, because you'll often be hungry for sounds as well as food. Here are street noises at night, train whistles from a long way off, dry leaves burning, busy department stores, crunching toast, creaking bed springs, and of course, all kinds of laughter. There's a little of each, and in far off, lonely places, I think you will be glad to have them. — Norton Juster

Perhaps someday you can have one city as easy to see as Illusions and as hard to forget as Reality. — Norton Juster

it seemed a great wonder that the world, which was so large, could sometimes feel so small and empty. — Norton Juster

From 2:30 to 3:30 we put off for tomorrow what we could have done today. — Norton Juster

It's completely logical," explained the Dodecahedron. "The more you want, the less you get, and the less you get, the more you have. Simple arithmetic, that's all. Suppose you had something and added something to it. What would that make?"
"More," said Milo quickly.
"Quite correct," he nodded. "Now suppose you had something and added nothing to it. What would you have?"
"The same," he answered again, without much conviction.
"Splendid," cried the Dodecahedron. "And suppose you had something and added less than nothing to it. What would you have then?"
"FAMINE!" roared the anguished Humbug, who suddenly realized that that was exactly what he'd eaten twenty-three bowls of. — Norton Juster

I write best in the morning, and I can only write for about half a day, that's about it. — Norton Juster

It's not just learning that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things that matters. — Norton Juster

You often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than right for the wrong reasons. — Norton Juster

They never see what they're too much of a hurry to look for — Norton Juster

Would it be possible for me to see something from up there?" asked Milo politely.
"You could," said Alec, "but only if you try very hard to look at things as an adult does."
Milo tried as hard as he could, and, as he did, his feet floated slowly off the ground until he was standing in the air next to Alex Bings. He looked around very quickly and, an instant later, crashed back down to the earth again.
"Interesting, wasn't it?" asked Alex.
"Yes, it was," agreed Milo, rubbing his head and dusting himself off, "but I think I'll continue to see things as a child. It's not so far to fall. — Norton Juster

Why, can you imagine what would happen if we named all the twos Henry or George or Robert or John or lots of other things? You'd have to say Robert plus John equals four, and if the four's name were Albert, things would be hopeless. — Norton Juster

But there's so much to learn," he said, with a thoughtful frown.
"Yes, that's true," admitted Rhyme; "but it's not just learning things that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things at all that matters."
"That's just what I mean," explained Milo as Tock and the exhausted bug drifted quietly off to sleep. "Many of the things I'm supposed to know seem so useless that I can't see the purpose in learning them at all."
"You may not see it now," said the Princess of Pure Reason, looking knowingly at Milo's puzzled face, "but whatever we learn has a purpose and whatever we do affects everything and everyone else, if even in the tiniest way. — Norton Juster

Do all those words mean the same thing?" gasped Milo. "Of course." "Certainly." "Precisely." "Exactly." "Yes," they replied in order. "Well, then," said Milo, not understanding why each one said the same thing in a slightly different way, "wouldn't it be simpler to use just one? It would certainly make more sense." "Nonsense." "Ridiculous." "Fantastic." "Absurd." "Bosh," they chorused again, and continued. "We're not interested in making sense; it's not our job," scolded the first. "Besides," explained the second, "one word is as good as another - so why not use them all? — Norton Juster

Whether or not you find your own way, you're bound to find some way. If you happen to find my way, please return it, as it was lost years ago. I imagine by now it's quite rusty. — Norton Juster

I don't know of any wrong road to Dictionopolis, so if this road goes to Dictionopolis at all it must be the right road, and if it doesn't it must be the right road to somewhere else, because there are no wrong roads to anywhere. Do you think it will rain? — Norton Juster

Freedom is not a license for chaos, — Norton Juster

And, most important of all," added the Mathemagician, "here is your own magic staff. Use it well and there is nothing it cannot do for you."
He placed in Milo's breast pocket a small gleaming pencil which, except for the size, was much like his own. — Norton Juster

Do you think it will rain?
Milo: But I thought you were the Weather Man?
No, I'm the Whether man, for it is more important to know whether there will be weather, whether than what the weather will be. — Norton Juster

You see, it's really quite simple. A simile is just a mode of comparison employing 'as' and 'like' to reveal the hidden character or essence of whatever we want to describe, and through the use of fancy, association, contrast, extension, or imagination, to enlarge our understanding or perception of human experience and observation. — Norton Juster

you must pick your words very carefully and be sure to say just what you intend to say. — Norton Juster

Time is a gift, given to you, given to give you the time you need, the time you need to have the time of your life. — Norton Juster

4. Confusion in the Market Place Indeed it was, for as they approached, Milo could see crowds of people pushing and shouting their way among the stalls, buying and selling, trading and bargaining. Huge wooden-wheeled carts streamed into the market square from the orchards, and long caravans bound for the four corners of the kingdom made ready to leave. Sacks and boxes were piled high waiting to be delivered to the ships that sailed the Sea of Knowledge, and off to one side a group of minstrels sang songs to the delight of those either too young or too old to engage in trade. But above all the noise and tumult of the crowd could be heard the merchants' voices loudly advertising their products. "Get your fresh-picked ifs, ands, and buts." "Hey-yaa, hey-yaa, hey-yaa, nice ripe wheres and whens." "Juicy, tempting words for sale. — Norton Juster

You see, to tall men I'm a midget, and to short men I'm a giant; to the skinny ones I'm a fat man, and to the fat ones I'm a thin man. — Norton Juster

I wonder where I am," said Milo in a very worried tone.
"You're ... in ... the ... Dol ... drums," wailed a voice that sounded far away. He looked around quickly to see who had spoken. No one was there, and it was as quiet and still as one
could imagine.
"Yes ... the ... Dol ... drums," yawned another voice, but still he saw no one.
"WHAT ARE THE DOLDRUMS?" he cried loudly, and tried very hard to see who would answer this time.
"The Doldrums, my young friend, are where nothing ever happens and nothing ever changes. — Norton Juster

You can't improve sound by having only silence. The problem is to use each at the proper time. — Norton Juster

Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens. — Norton Juster

I didn't know that I was going to have to eat my own words:
- Milo — Norton Juster

To a child, and to an adult, too, what you discover by yourself, or what you think you discover by yourself, is what stays. — Norton Juster

Just because you have a choice, it doesn't mean that any of them 'has' to be right. — Norton Juster

A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect. Be gone, odious wasp! You smell of decayed syllables. — Norton Juster

As you can see, that leaves almost no time for brooding, lagging, plodding, or procrastinating, and if we stopped to think or laugh, we'd never get nothing done." "You mean you'd never get anything done," corrected Milo. "We don't want to get anything done," snapped another angrily; "we want to get nothing done, and we can do that without your help. — Norton Juster

There's nothing to it," they all said in chorus, "if you have a magic staff." Then six of them cancelled themselves out and simply disappeared.
"But it's only a big pencil," the Humbug objected, tapping at it with his cane.
"True enough," agreed the Mathemagician; "but once you learn to use it, there's no end to what you can do. — Norton Juster

Isn't this everyone's Point of View?" asked Tock, looking around curiously.
"Of course not," replied Alec, sitting himself down on nothing. "It's only mine, and you certainly can't always look at things from someone else's Point of View. For instance, from here that looks like a bucket of water," he said, pointing to a bucket of water; "but from an ant's point of view it's a vast ocean, from an elephant's just a cool drink, and to a fish, of course, it's home. So, you see, the way you see things depends a great deal on where you look at them from. — Norton Juster

I received a grant from The Ford Foundation to write a book for kids about urban perception, or how people experience cities, but I kept putting off writing it. Instead I started to write what became The Phantom Tollbooth. — Norton Juster

Perhaps you'd care for a synonym bun, suggested the duke. — Norton Juster

Every time you decide something without having a good reason, you jump to Conclusions whether you like it or not. — Norton Juster

Since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking. — Norton Juster

But I suppose there's a lot to see everywhere, if only you keep your eyes open. — Norton Juster

1. Milo There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself - not just sometimes, but always. When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he'd bothered. Nothing really interested him - least of all the things that should have. "It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time," he remarked one day as he walked dejectedly home from school. "I can't see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February." And, since no one bothered to explain otherwise, he regarded the process of seeking knowledge as the greatest waste of time of all. — Norton Juster

Words and numbers are of equal value, for in the cloak of knowledge one is warp and the other woof. — Norton Juster

What a strange thing to have happen," he thought (just as you must be thinking right now). "This game is much more serious than I thought, for here I am riding on a road I've never seen, going to a place I've never heard of, and all because of a tollbooth which came from nowhere. I'm certainly glad that it's a nice day for a trip," he concluded hopefully, for, at the moment, this was the one thing he definitely knew. — Norton Juster

You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and not get wet. — Norton Juster

So each one of you agrees to disagree with whatever the other one agrees with, but if you both disagree with the same thing, aren't you really in agreement? — Norton Juster