Cressida Quotes & Sayings

Happy and giggly and bustly, the Hogfly ignored Hiccup's strangled cries of: "Hoglfy! Come back here, Hogfly!"
"Ooh!" it squeaked in delighted confusion. "You all look so lovely! How am I to choose which one of you to be my friend?"
It perched on the sinister swoop of the Razorwing's nose.
"Where's my biscuit? Are you married? Be my valentine ... "
"I can't bear to watch ... " groaned Fishlegs.
It was like seeing an enthusiastic bunny rabbit trying to make friends with a heavily armed, bunny-eating cobra. — Cressida Cowell

I disliked singing in English and neither liked the story nor the character of Cressida. — Walter Legge

Well, suffering swordfish," exclaimed Fishlegs. "Hiccup is LEFTHANDED. — Cressida Cowell

In slow drowning waves the knowledge washed over Cressida, her professor did not think that she was so special after all. He didn't know her father Zeno. Was that it? — Joyce Carol Oates

There were dragons when I was a boy. — Cressida Cowell

The first Dragon was enough to give you nightmares.
The second Dragon was enough to give your nightmares nightmares. — Cressida Cowell

"MAKE RED YOUR CLAWS WITH HUMAN BLOOD ... OBLITERATE THE HUMAN FILTH ... "
"Ooh, that's a nice song," said the Hogfly, ever polite. — Cressida Cowell

Always sailing, sailing, sailing ... never quite reaching. — Cressida Cowell

Attention spans are changing. It's very noticeable. I am very aware that the kind of books I read in my childhood kids now won't be able to read. I was reading Kipling and PG Wodehouse and Shakespeare at the age of 11. The kind of description and detail I read I would not put in my books. I don't know how much you can fight that because you want children to read. So I pack in excitement and plot and illustrations and have a cliffhanger every chapter. Charles Dickens was doing cliffhangers way back when. But even with all the excitement you have to make children care about the characters. — Cressida Cowell

Because: Love Never Dies, What is Within is More Important than What is Without, The Best is Not Always the Most Obvious and Once You've Loved Truly, Thor, then You Know the Way — Cressida Cowell

I've booked a few sessions to make it look like a genuine getaway but now I look at my programme, I wonder how to fit in murdering my mother-in-law." Cressida Barker-Powell (Criss Cross) — Caron Allan

I forget myself sometimes, but then I look up, as I am looking up now, and I see in my mind's eye a sheild, strangely changed by a rich encrusting of jewel-like barnacles and cold-water coral, with an eight foot tooth sticking right out of the middle of it. I reach out and the edge of that tooth is still so bitingly sharp after all these years that just a gentle brush with the fingers might send a rain of blood down on these pages. And I bend my head, not too close, and I am sure I can hear, very faintly:
Once I set the sea alight
With a single fiery breath ...
Once I was so mighty that I thought
My name was Death ...
Sing out loud until you're eaten,
Song of melancholy blisss,
For the mighty and the middling
All shall come to THIS ...
The Supper is still singing. — Cressida Cowell

Good; and what of him?
ALEXANDER
They say he is a very man per se,
And stands alone.
CRESSIDA
So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or have no
legs. — William Shakespeare

I have never cared for Castles
or a Crown that grips too tight,
Let the night sky be my starry roof
and the moon my only light,
My Heart was born a Hero,
my storm-bound sword won't rest,
I left the Harbour long ago
on a Never-ending Quest,
I am off to the horizon,
where the wild wind blows the foam,
Come get lost with me, love,
and the sea shall be our home! — Cressida Cowell

Please do not blame the story.
The story cannot help itself. We do not realize it at the time, but sometimes the story we are all a part of is not just a story about Vikings and islands and dragons.
It is a story about growing up.
And one of the things about growing up, one of the inescapable, inevitable laws, is that one day...
One day... one day...
It is going to happen.
I am sorry, but it's true. — Cressida Cowell

I sit on the rock where Cressida filmed us, but it's too wide without his body beside me. Several times I close my eyes and count to ten, thinking that when I open them, he will have materialized without a sound as he so often did. I have to remind myself that Gale's in 2 with a fancy job, probably kissing another pair of lips. — Suzanne Collins

The past is another land, and we cannot go to visit. So, if I say there were dragons, and men who rode upon their backs, who alive has been there and can tell me that I'm wrong? — Cressida Cowell

Sometimes it is only a True Friend who knows what we mean when we try to speak.
Somebody who has spent a lot of time with us, and listens carefully to what we are trying to say, and tries to understand. — Cressida Cowell

We're all snatching precious moments from the peaceful jaws of time. — Cressida Cowell

But how can we know that dragons did not exist? We have never actually BEEN to the Dark Ages. — Cressida Cowell

K-k-keep your helmet on. T-t-toothless doing his BEST. — Cressida Cowell

GO FOR HIS EYES! OR BITE HIM ON THE NOSE! DRAGON NOSES ARE VERY SENSITIVE!
Oh, very helpful, Camicazi, very helpful ... thought Hiccup. What if he doesn't obligingly hold me up to his nose? What if the only part I get close to is the TEETH? — Cressida Cowell

The past haunts the present in more ways than we think. It certainly scares the living daylights out of ME"~ Old Wrinkly — Cressida Cowell

The Hero cares not for a wild winter's storm. For it carries him swift on the back of the storm. All may be lost and our hearts may be worn, but a Hero fights forever. — Cressida Cowell

And now that its ruby eyes are set into the gold, you cannot see their tear-shape, so they seem to be laughing rather than crying. It is a constant reminder to me of the human ability to create something beautiful even when things are at the darkest. — Cressida Cowell

Shakespeare's bitter play [Troilus and Cressida] is therefore a dramatization of a part of a translation into English of the French translation of a Latin imitation of an old French expansion of a Latin epitome of a Greek romance. (p. 55) — Gilbert Highet

As we trudge back through the woods, we reach a boulder, and both Gale and I turn our heads in the same direction, like a pair of dogs catching a scent on the wind. Cressida notices and asks what lies that way. We admit, without acknowledging each other, it's our old hunting rendez-vous place. She wants to see it, even after we tell her it's nothing really.
Nothing but a place where I was happy, I think. — Suzanne Collins

For a Hero cannot triumph all the time. Sometimes he will be defeated, and how he faces that defeat is a test of his character. — Cressida Cowell

He says he comes in peace," said Hiccup "He's still going to kill us, though. — Cressida Cowell

Courage what is within is more important than what is without. — Cressida Cowell

Being frightened is not the same as being a coward. — Cressida Cowell

Hiccup followed him carefully ... and fell over again.
"BRAVO!" clapped Alvin, to Hiccup's surprise.
"But I fell over again" said Hiccup.
"But with such STYLE," said Alvin. "You can't teach that, it's in the blood. — Cressida Cowell

Once, when I was a child, I dreamed that Grimbeard the Ghastly, on the deck of his ship The Endless Journey, threw the sword Endeavor up into the air. Up and up it spun, through the inky blackness, across the cavernous span of a hundred years, until, entirely of its own accord, my own left hand sprang out of space and stars and never-ending time and caught it. Now that I am so very old, I am dreaming once again. And in my dream, I am the one throwing the sword. It is spinning now, in the black starlit waters of my dream, right above your head, dear reader. A sword that may look second-best, and secondhand, but but carries the memories of a thousand lost fights, a history lesson in itself. Reach out, and catch it by the hilt. Swear by its name, Endeavor, to do your utmost to make the world a better place than when you arrived in it. For look! There will be dragons all around you, as camouflaged as a Stealth Dragon. — Cressida Cowell

The dragons I would write about would not be the rather generalized, big, green things that I had read about in storybooks. What I wanted to create was a multiplicity of different dragon species, of all shapes and sizes, adapted to their environment and habitats in the same way as birds or other animals we see today. — Cressida Cowell

PANDARUS
You are such a woman! A man knows not at what ward you
lie.
CRESSIDA
Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to defend
my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to
defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these; and at all these
wards I lie at, at a thousand watches.
PANDARUS
Say one of your watches.
CRESSIDA
Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the
chiefest of them too. If I cannot ward what I would not have hit,
I can watch you for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell
past hiding, and then it's past watching. — William Shakespeare

But you are human, and just like the rest of us you have the potential to be both a devil and an angel. There's no such thing as an evil race, just a human race.
Cressida — Stuart Hill

Are you the stuff that hero's are made of? Or are you a jellyfish in a skirt? — Cressida Cowell

Would the fountain of your mind were clear again,
that I might water an ass at it! — William Shakespeare

Most of us are lucky not to be Kings and Heroes, because we do not have to make the choices that Kings and Heroes have to make. — Cressida Cowell

I was not the sort of boy who could train a dragon with a mere lifting of an eyebrow. I was not a natural at the Heroism business. I had to work at it. This is the story of becoming a Hero the Hard Way. — Cressida Cowell

Thou sodden-witted lord! thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows. — William Shakespeare

Chuckling, Josh backs away. "I'll leave you to Cressida and Noel then."
To his back, I call out, "For your information, it's Nigel! — Jenny Han

He looked as frightened as I was. I looked at him, and I saw myself.1,080 rount — Cressida Cowell

Why else is politics the perfect refuge for every liar, cheat, and self-serving toad that was ever born? All you need is a good set of teeth and the ability to smile convincingly with them.
Cressida — Stuart Hill

If you want to know what are the events which cast their shadow over the hell of time of King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, look to see when and how the shadow lifts. What softens the heart of a man, shipwrecked in storms dire, Tried, like another Ulysses, Pericles, prince of Tyre? — James Joyce

But then I have always been somewhat of a square peg in a round hole. — Cressida Cowell

Does this look like a dragon who would poo in a helmet??? — Cressida Cowell

I NAME THIS LAND TOMORROW, FOR IT SHALL LAST FOREVERMORE! — Cressida Cowell

Cressida: My lord, will you be true?
Troilus: Who, I? Alas, it is my vice, my fault:
Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion,
I with great truth catch mere simplicity;
Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns,
With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare.
Fear not my truth: the moral of my wit
Is "plain and true"; there's all the reach of it. — William Shakespeare

Come on, Fishlegs," whispered Camicazi, whistling happily. "You know we have to do this. Besides, I feel like a bit of exercise. We've been cooped up in that hideout for way too long."
Frankly, at this point, Camicazi had grown so fed up that if Hiccup had suggested hang gliding off the toe-talons of the dragon Furious she'd have been up for it.
"A bit of exercise?" blustered Fishlegs. "A bit of exercise? This is not some kind of Viking version of Girls Keep Fit! — Cressida Cowell

She [Cressida] knows it is men's sexual desire that makes women "angels" before they have been able to possess them; once possessed, women are "things" [Troilus and Cressida I.2, 225-28, 233-34]. — Tina Packer

But Tact and Sensitivity were not Gobber's strong points, and he took the first five minutes to come up with "Hiccup copped it. SORRY," and the spent the second five minutes tearing his beard out. — Cressida Cowell

What I love about 'Mockingjay, Part 1' is that President Coin or Cressida could have easily been played by a man, and if you look at 'Interstellar,' the Anne Hathaway or Jessica Chastain roles would have been men years ago. — Natalie Dormer

Oh, for Thor's sake ... " said Hiccup. "I thought that was just a story ... "
"Stories come from somewhere," said the witch. "The past haunts the present in more ways than we realise. — Cressida Cowell

CHAPTER THE FIRST
(AND LAST)
The Golden Rule of Dragon Training is to ...
YELL AT IT!
(The louder the better,)
THE END. — Cressida Cowell

WARNING
Any Relationship to any historical fact WHATSOEVER is entirely coincidental. You have been WARNED — Cressida Cowell

Sometimes a King has to do terrible things in order to protect those he has sworn to look after. When the stakes are so high, dreadful decisions have to be taken. It is the responsibility of a King to take on that burden, that guilt. — Cressida Cowell

I wanted to be a King who would found a New World, not in some misty country far across the seas, but right here, right now, at home. — Cressida Cowell

My poison is creeping through his body.
My strong venom is killing his heart. — Cressida Cowell

Toothless crossed his eyes and made a gulping noise with his throat as if he was swallowing ...
"AAAAAAARGH!" screamed Hiccup.
Toothless spat Ziggerastica onto the floor.
"Only j-j-joking," he said. — Cressida Cowell

Books were despised by the Viking Tribes, as they were seen as a horrible civilizing influence and a threat to the barbarian culture. — Cressida Cowell

No will will believe it at first,' Cressida continued. 'You were right about that. But then they'll start to think, and slowly but surely, the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place. Someone will remember that they said something to you that ended up in a column. Or that you were at a particular house party. Or that they'd seen Eloise Bridgerton snooping about, and doesn't everyone know that the two of you tell each other everything?'
'What do you want?' Penelope asked, her voice low and haunted as she finally lifted her head to face her enemy.
'Ah, now, there's the question I've been waiting for. — Julia Quinn

Wartihog put up his hand. "What happens if we can't read, sir?"
"No boasting, Wartihog!" boomed Gobber. "Get some idiot to read it for you. — Cressida Cowell

I didn't mean to come here ...
And I didn't mean to stay ...
It's just where the sea wind blew me
One accidental day ... — Cressida Cowell

The only GOOD Roman is a DEAD Roman," said Camicazi.
Hiccup sighed. "That isn't true. I'm sure there are LOADS of good Romans. But all the good Romans are probably quietly minding their own business back in Rome. — Cressida Cowell

Shit! Cressida! Move!" The words were barely out of his mouth when he leapt forward and down, jumping six steps and rolling when he hit the bottom, catching her and tucking her against him. Above them, metal popped and the boulder slammed down, resealing the hole. — Rachel Grant

reminded me on Friday night that we aren't friends, Cressida, and I would like you to remember that now,' she snapped. 'So why don't you go and make someone else feel crap about their life and then when you're done with that, go and look for your boyfriend's chin, — Kate Forster

There's no such thing as im-POSSIBLE, Hiccup, only im-PROBABLE. The only thing that limits us are the limits to our imagination — Cressida Cowell

He that is proud eats up himself: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle. — William Shakespeare

And this was the surprising thing about life on Berk. It was a bit like the sea itself. One minute it was all storms, and shipwrecks, and desperate escapes from deadly dragons, the next it was as calm, and peacefully restful, as if these things had never happened. — Cressida Cowell

OUTCASTS! R-R-RUN FOR YOUR LIVES, YOU S-S-SSTUPID H-H-HUMANS!!! — Cressida Cowell

February turned into March and Hiccup was still thinking. A few flowers made the mistake of appearing and were immediately blasted out of existence by a couple of hard frosts that had kept themselves back for this very purpose. — Cressida Cowell

good at.' Cressida turned and looked at Tilly.'Don't think that on Monday we will be instafriends because of this.' 'Totally. I actually really dislike you,' slurred Tilly, — Kate Forster

Thank you for nothing, you stupid reptile. — Cressida Cowell

Bouchalka was not a reflective person. He had his own idea of what a great prima donna should be like, and he took it for granted that Mme. Garnet corresponded to his conception. The curious thing was that he managed to impress his idea upon Cressida herself. She began to see herself as he saw her, to try to be like the notion of her that he carried everywhere in that pointed head of his. She was exalted quite beyond herself. Things that had been chilled under the grind came to life in her that winter, with the breath of Bouchalka's adoration. Then, if ever in her life, she heard the bird sing on the branch outside her window; and she wished she were younger, lovelier, freer. She wished there were no Poppas, no Horace, no Garnets. She longed to be only the bewitching creature Bouchalka imagined her. — Willa Cather

You can't put': Hiccup in charge, sir, he's USELESS. — Cressida Cowell

History is a set of repeating circles, like the tide. The wind does blow through the ruins of tomorrow. But it is more a question of two steps forward, one step back. Humans and dragons make the same mistakes, again and again, but things do get better over time — Cressida Cowell

If the distinction is not held too rigidly nor pressed too far, it is interesting to think of Shakespeare's chief works as either love dramas or power dramas, or a combination of the two. In his Histories, the poet handles the power problem primarily, the love interest being decidedly incidental. In the Comedies, it is the other way around, overwhelmingly in the lighter ones, distinctly in the graver ones, except in Troilus and Cressida
hardly comedy at all
where without full integration something like a balance is maintained. In the Tragedies both interests are important, but Othello is decidedly a love drama and Macbeth as clearly a power drama, while in Hamlet and King Lear the two interests often alternate rather than blend. — Harold Clarke Goddard

History is a ghost story. My own childhood has passed into history, and the ghosts I find there are the ghosts of Heroes and dragons and Berserks and witches, and it has become fashionable not to believe in these things anymore. But I believe, for I was there. — Cressida Cowell

The thing about grown ups is that they're always wanting you to be this Great Hero and Leader. What's wrong with being NORMAL, for Thor's sake? What's wrong with just being SO-SO at stuff? They're just totally unrealistic ... — Cressida Cowell

I was not a natural ... This is the story of becoming ... the Hard Way. — Cressida Cowell

However small we are, we should always fight for what we believe to be right. And I don't mean fight with the power of our fists or the power of our swords ... I mean the power of our brains and our thoughts and our dreams.
And as small and quiet and unimportant as our fighting may look, perhaps we might all work together ... and break out of the prisons of our own making. Perhaps we might be able to keep this fierce and beautiful world of ours as free for all of us as it seemed to be on that blue afternoon of my childhood. — Cressida Cowell

Remember, there is nothing wrong with a healthy sense of self-respect. — Cressida Cowell

What you g-g-gonna do, tough guy? Tickle Toothless to d-d-death? — Cressida Cowell

Twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death — Cressida Cowell

PANDARUS
Well, well! Why, have you any discretion? Have you any
eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good
shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth,
liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man?
CRESSIDA
Ay, a minc'd man; and then to be bak'd with no date in
the pie, for then the man's date is out. — William Shakespeare

Cinnamon Treat Green Smoothie — Cressida Elias

The mighty bosoms of Big-Boobied Bertha had killed many a Warrior in mortal combat. — Cressida Cowell

A Chief must show no fear, no worry ... A Chief is a leader first, and a man second ... — Cressida Cowell

That is a terrible plan." "Hiccup's plans are always t-terrible." "Hey! You're still here, aren't you? — Cressida Cowell