Peter Pan Barrie Quotes & Sayings

But of course he cared very much; and he was so full of wrath against grown-ups, who, as usual, were spoiling everything, that as soon as he got inside his tree he breathed intentionally quick short breaths at the rate of about five to a second. He did this because there is a saying in the Neverland that every time you breathe, a grown-up dies; and Peter was killing them vindictively as fast as possible. — J.M. Barrie

For to have faith, is to have wings Peter Pan — James M. Barrie

Of all the delectable islands the Neverland is the snuggest and most compact, not large and sprawly, you know, with tedious distances between one adventure and another, but nicely crammed. When you play at it by day with the chairs and table-cloth, it is not in the least alarming, but in the two minutes before you go to sleep it becomes very nearly real. That is why there are night-lights. — J.M. Barrie

The door', replied Maimie, 'will always, always be open, and mother will always be waiting at it for me. — J.M. Barrie

And as she was crossing to the day-nursery he added thoughtlessly, 'And shut that window. I feel a draught.'
'O George, never ask me to do that. The window must always be left open for them, always, always. — J.M. Barrie

'The Admirable Crichton' is probably Barrie's most famous work after 'Peter Pan', nearly a pendant to that classic. — Michael Dirda

Peter was not with them for the moment, and they felt rather lonely up there by themselves. He could go so much faster than they that he would suddenly shoot out of sight, to have some adventure in which they had no share.
He would come down laughing over something fearfully funny he had been saying to a star, but he had already forgotten what it was, or he would come up with mermaid scales still sticking to him, and yet not be able to to say for certain what had been happening.
It was really rather irritating to children who had never seen a mermaid. — J.M. Barrie

All over the walls of my room are pictures of Peter Pan. I've read everything that Barrie wrote. I totally identify with Peter Pan, the lost boy from Never Neverland. — Michael Jackson

Peter was a superb swordsman, and parried with dazzling rapidity; ever and anon he followed up a feint with a lunge that got past his foe's defense, but his shorter reach stood him in ill stead, and he could not drive the steel home — J.M. Barrie

Thus, when you cry out, 'Greedy! Greedy!' to the bird that flies
away with the big crust, you know now that you ought not to do this, for he is very likely taking it to Peter
Pan. — J.M. Barrie

Of course Neverland had been make-believe in those days; but it was real now, and there were no night-lights, and it was getting darker every moment, and where was Nana? — J.M. Barrie

Some disquieting confessions must be made in printing at last the play of Peter Pan; among them this, that I have no recollection of having written it. — J.M. Barrie

Peter spoke indignantly. "You don't think I would kill him while he was sleeping! I would wake him first, and then kill him. That's the way I always do." "I say! Do you kill many?" "Tons! — J.M. Barrie

Build a house?" exclaimed John.
"For the Wendy," said Curly.
"For Wendy?" John said, aghast. "Why, she is only a girl!"
"That," explained Curly, "is why we are her servants. — J.M. Barrie

Back in the 1950s and '60s, J. M. Barrie's 'Peter Pan' - starring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard - was regularly aired on network television during the Christmas season. I must have seen it four or five times and remember, in particular, Ritchard's gloriously camp interpretation of Captain Hook. — Michael Dirda

Peter had seen many tragedies, but he had forgotten them all. — J.M. Barrie

To reveal who he really was would even at this date set the country in a blaze. — J.M. Barrie

He was never more sinister than when he was most polite ... — J.M. Barrie

For long the two enemies looked at one another, Hook shuddering slightly, and Peter with the strange smile upon his face.
"So, Pan," said Hook at last, "this is all your doing."
"Ay, James Hook," came the stern answer, "it is all my doing."
"Proud and insolent youth," said Hook, "prepare to meet thy doom."
"Dark and sinister man,"For long the two enemies looked at one another, Hook shuddering slightly, and Peter with the strange smile upon his face.
"Dark and sinister man," Peter answered, "have at thee. — J.M. Barrie

The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it. — J.M. Barrie

Again came that ringing crow, and Peter dropped in front of them. "Greeting, boys," he cried, and mechanically they saluted, and then again was silence.
He frowned.
"I am back," he said hotly, "why do you not cheer? — J.M. Barrie

Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. — J.M. Barrie

I can't come,' she said apologetically, 'I have forgotten how to fly.'
'I'll soon teach you again.'
'O Peter, don't waste the fairy dust on me. — J.M. Barrie

He was a poet; and they are never exactly grown-up. — J.M. Barrie

Certainly they did not pretend to be sleepy, they were sleepy; and that was a danger, for the moment they popped off, down they fell. The awful thing was that Peter found this funny. "There he goes again!" he would cry gleefully as Michael suddenly dropped like a stone. — J.M. Barrie

Long ago," he said, "I thought like you that my mother would always keep the window open for me; so I stayed away for moons and moons and moons, and then flew back; but the window was barred, for mother had forgotten all about me, and there was another little boy sleeping in my bed."
I am not sure that this was true, but Peter thought it was true; and it scared them.
"Are you sure mothers are like that?"
"Yes."
So this was the truth about mothers. The toads! — J.M. Barrie

Shoot the Wendybird! — J.M. Barrie

There never was a simpler, happier family until the coming of Peter Pan. — J.M. Barrie

Tink was not all bad: or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. They are, however, allowed to change, only it must be a complete change. — J.M. Barrie

Some of my plays peter out and some pan out. — James M. Barrie

She says she glories in being abandoned — J.M. Barrie

Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal — J.M. Barrie

Whenever a child says "I don't believe in fairies" there's a little fairy somewhere that falls right down dead — J.M. Barrie

I am the best there ever was! — J.M. Barrie

You just think lovely wonderful thoughts," Peter explained, "and they lift you up in the air. — J.M. Barrie

Our heroine knew that the mother would always leave the window open for her children to fly back by; so they stayed away for years and had a lovely time ... — J.M. Barrie

Wendy," Peter Pan continued in a voice that no woman has ever yet been able to resist, "Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty boys. — J.M. Barrie

So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land! — J.M. Barrie

The last thing he ever said to me was, 'Just always be waiting for me, and then some night you will hear me crowing. — J.M. Barrie

She asked where he lived.
Second to the right,' said Peter, 'and then straight on till morning. — J.M. Barrie

Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars. — J.M. Barrie

He decided to appeal to the fairies for enlightenment. They are reputed
to know a good deal. — J.M. Barrie

But where do you live mostly now?"
With the lost boys."
Who are they?"
They are the children who fall out of their perambulators when the nurse is looking the other way. If they are not claimed in seven days they are sent far away to the Neverland to defray expanses. I'm captain."
What fun it must be!"
Yes," said cunning Peter, "but we are rather lonely. You see we have no female companionship."
Are none of the others girls?"
Oh no; girls, you know, are much too clever to fall out of their prams. — J.M. Barrie

At first Mrs. Darling did not know, but after thinking back into her childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live with the fairies. There were odd stories about him, as that when children died he went part of the way with them, so that they should not be frightened. — J.M. Barrie

Smee", he said huskily, "that crocodile would have had me before this, but by a lucky chance it swallowed a clock that goes tick tick inside it, and so before it can reach me I can hear the tick and bolt." He laughed, but in a hollow way. "Some day", Smee said, "the clock will run down, and then he'll get you. — J.M. Barrie

It is frightfully difficult to know much about the fairies, and almost the only thing for certain is that there are fairies wherever there are children. — J.M. Barrie

You must see for yourselves that it will be difficult to follow Peter Pan's adventures unless you are familiar with the Kensington Gardens. — J.M. Barrie

The moment where you doubt you can fly, you cease forever being able to do it. — J.M. Barrie

Generations of British writers would look up to Roget as a kindred soul who could offer both emotional as well as intellectual sustenance. In the stage directions to Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie includes an homage to Roget: The night nursery of the Darling family, which is the scene of our opening Act, is at the top of a rather depressed street in Bloomsbury. We might have a right to place it where we will, and the reason Bloomsbury is chosen is that Mr. Roget once lived there. So did we in the days when his Thesaurus was our only companion in London; and we whom he has helped to wend our way through life have always wanted to pay him a little compliment. For Barrie, Roget's masterpiece was synonymous with virtue itself. To describe the one saving grace of the play's villain, Captain Hook, Barrie adds, "The man is not wholly evil--he has a Thesaurus in his cabin. — Joshua Kendall

Feeling that Peter was on his way back, the Neverland had again woke into life. We ought to use the pluperfect and say wakened, but woke is better and was always used by Peter. — J.M. Barrie

Oh, the cleverness of me! — J.M. Barrie

One could mention many lovable traits in Smee. For instance, after killing, it was his spectacles he wiped instead of his weapon. — J.M. Barrie

To live will be an awfully big adventure. — J.M. Barrie

All remember about my mother," Nibs told them, "is that she often said to my father, 'Oh, how I wish I had a cheque-book of my own!' I don't know what a cheque-book is, but I should just love to give my mother one. — J.M. Barrie

David tells me that fairies never say 'We feel happy': what they say is, 'We feel dancey'. — J.M. Barrie

I've chosen Peter Pan by JM Barrie as my favourite children's book. — Tessa Jowell

Mrs. Darling loved to have everything just so, and Mr. Darling had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course, they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount of milk the children drank, this nurse was a prim Newfoundland dog, called Nana, who had belonged to no one in particular until the Darlings engaged her. She had always thought children important, however, and the Darlings had become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent most of her spare time peeping into perambulators, and was much hated by careless nursemaids, whom she followed to their homes and complained of to their mistresses. She proved to be quite a treasure of a nurse. — J.M. Barrie

I have no recollection of writing the play of Peter Pan, now being published for the first time so long after he made his bow upon the stage. — J.M. Barrie

Don't cry, pretty human, don't cry," and then she turned round and saw a beautiful little naked boy regarding her wistfully. She knew at once that he must be Peter Pan. — J.M. Barrie

It was not really Saturday night, at least it may have been, for they had long lost count of the days; but always if they wanted to do anything special they said this was Saturday night, and then they did it. — J.M. Barrie

See," he said, "the arrow struck against this. It is the kiss I gave her. It has saved her life. — J.M. Barrie

I remember kisses," said Slightly. "Let me see. Aye, that is a kiss. A powerful thing. — J.M. Barrie

You are too late," he cried proudly, "I have shot the Wendy. Peter will be so pleased with me."
Overhead Tinker Bell shouted "Silly ass!" and darted into hiding. — J.M. Barrie

Bringing up the rear, the place of greatest danger, comes Tiger Lily, proudly erect, a princess in her own right. She is the most beautiful of dusky Dianas and the belle of the Piccaninnies, coquettish, cold, and amorous by turns; there is not a brave who would not have the wayward thing to wife, but she staves off the altar with a hatchet. — J.M. Barrie