Wynne Jones Quotes & Sayings

Sophie got herself to the mirror, and found that she had to hobble. The face in the mirror was quite calm, because it was what she expected to see. It was the face of a gaunt old woman, withered and brownish, surrounded by wispy white hair. Her own eyes, yellow and watery, stared out at her, looking rather tragic.
"Don't worry, old thing," Sophie said to the face. "You look quite healthy. Besides, this is much more like you really are. — Diana Wynne Jones

The tiny princess glanced up with a shy smile. "Boyth, all," she said, in a small, lisping voice. Morgan's — Diana Wynne Jones

I am a believer in free will. If my dog chooses to hate the whole human race except myself, it must be free to do so. — Diana Wynne Jones

If I give you a hint and tell you it's a hint, it will be information. — Diana Wynne Jones

And, suddenly, as if her head cleared, she was quite sure that wonderful things did indeed exist. Even if they're only in my own mind, she thought, they're there and worth fighting for. — Diana Wynne Jones

This is ridiculous, I mean, wholly ridiculous. It never did any child any harm to have something that was a tiny bit above them anyway, and I claim that anyone who can follow Doctor Who can follow absolutely anything. — Diana Wynne Jones

Then watch out. I warn you!"
"That is very considerate of you," said Chrestomanci. "I like to be warned. — Diana Wynne Jones

She had a silly impulse to add, But she was alive an hour ago! And she stopped herself, because death is like that: people are alive until they die. "Yes. — Diana Wynne Jones

If you were able to hear lime juice, it would sound like violins. — Diana Wynne Jones

It's amazing the way one can take a step ten and a half miles long and still always land in a cowpat. — Diana Wynne Jones

Goats," said Maxwell Hyde, "are a special case. Mad as hatters, all of them. — Diana Wynne Jones

Howl backed into the door to shut it and leaned there in a tragic attitude. "Look at you all!" he said. "Ruin stares me in the face. I slave all day for you. And not one of you, even Calcifer, can spare time to say hello!"
Calcifer said, "I never do say hello."
"Is something wrong?" asked Sophie.
"That's better," Howl said. "Some of you are pretending to notice me at last. Yes, something is wrong. — Diana Wynne Jones

To love someone enough to let them go, you had to let them go forever or you did not love them that much. — Diana Wynne Jones

If you knew the trouble we've had because Howl will keep falling in love like this! We've had lawsuits, and suitors with swords, and mothers with rolling pins, and fathers and uncles with cudgels. And aunts. Aunts are terrible. They go for you with hat pins. — Diana Wynne Jones

Do you mind not being so kind and obedient? It makes me nervous. — Diana Wynne Jones

I'll show you how," Peter said. "Stop hiding behind your ignorance. — Diana Wynne Jones

That can go in the cabinet, and so can this One Ring. No, don't put it on, you fool! It's dangerous! — Diana Wynne Jones

Sorry I gave you a fright." Howl seemed more used to holding babies than Sophie was. He rocked Morgan soothingly and stared at him. Morgan stared, rather balefullt, back. "My word, he's ugly" Howl said. "Chip off the old block" "Howl!" said Sophie. But she did not sound angry. — Diana Wynne Jones

Nobody gets praised for the right reasons. — Diana Wynne Jones

But I do think that when people say 'a learning curve,' they make a mistake. Learning to me always seems to go in a straight, ignorant line and then, every so often, takes a jump straight upward. — Diana Wynne Jones

You've rotted your mind with reading books. — Diana Wynne Jones

She stared at the King. The King stared back. It was a disaster. — Diana Wynne Jones

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

On Wednesday, for variety, he accosted Andrew as Andrew went out to check the state of the garden walls and presented a further cardboard box containing ten kilos of tomatoes and a squash like a deformed head of a baby. — Diana Wynne Jones

He scarcely saw his parents. When Christopher was small, he was terrified that he would meet Papa out walking in the Park one day and not recognize him. — Diana Wynne Jones

If you must know, I-I had never in my life kissed a young lady, and you are far too beautiful to me to want to get it wrong! — Diana Wynne Jones

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

Oh! Polly thought. Why aren't all girls locked up by law the year they turn fifteen? They do such stupid things! — Diana Wynne Jones

Please, your story, or I shall offend the dignitaries of my kingdom by yawning at holy things. — Diana Wynne Jones

I've got a hangover."
"No, you hit your head on the floor."
"I can't stay. I've got to rescue that fool Sophie. — Diana Wynne Jones

Interesting things did seem to happen, but always to somebody else. — Diana Wynne Jones

You are a terror, aren't you? Leave this yard alone. I know just where everything is in it, and I won't be able to find the things I need for my transport spells if you tidy them up.'
So there was probably a bundle of souls or a box of chewed hearts somewhere out here, Sophie thought. She felt really thwarted. 'Tidying up is what I'm here for!' she shouted at Howl.
'Then you must think of a new meaning for your life,' Howl said. — Diana Wynne Jones

Diana Wynne Jones' excellent book 'The Tough Guide to Fantasyland' is a compendium of the sort of lazy writing that has given fantasy fiction - especially the sub-section that features elves and dwarves and other Tolkienesque elements - a bad name. — Jane Lindskold

I don't think I will get married," Polly said as she stood up. "I'm going to train to be a hero instead. — Diana Wynne Jones

You're wearing that hat? After all the magic I used to make your dress pretty?"

~Howl from the movie 'Howl's Moving Castle — Diana Wynne Jones

Howl said to Sophie, I've been wondering all along if you would turn out to be that lovely girl I met on May Day. Why were you scared then? — Diana Wynne Jones

Some people are thoroughly self-centred. This thing goes with me. I need it for moral support. — Diana Wynne Jones

[T]he incomparable Diana Wynne Jones, one of the finest mythic fiction writers of our age, who left us too early (due to cancer) two days ago. I'm so grateful to her for the extraordinary books she has left behind, which have inspired a whole generation of younger writers. She was writing brilliant YA fantasy before the genre (as we know it now) even existed; she was writing enchanting "wizard school" books long before Harry Potter was a gleam in Rowling's eye; and her knowledge of how to weave mythic/folkloric themes into contemporary fiction was second to no one's. Diana will be terribly missed, but through her magical stories, her light will stay on. — Terri Windling

When I say "narrative", I do not mean simply the plot, I mean considerably more. Plots and their shapes
the bare outlines of stories
were something I know J.R.R. Tolkien himself was interested in. When I was an undergraduate, I went to a course of lectures he gave on the subject
at least, I think that was the subject, because Tolkien was all but inaudible. He evidently hated lecturing, and I suspect he also hated giving his thoughts away. — Diana Wynne Jones

Somewhere in the lane after that they came level with a small door next to a fried chicken shop. There was a small red-lit sign over this door. — Diana Wynne Jones

People Sophie had known all her life came and bought flowers by the bundle. None of them recognized her, and that made her feel very odd. — Diana Wynne Jones

Wizard Howl," said Wizard Suliman. "I must apologize for trying to bite you so often. In the normal way, I wouldn't dream of setting teeth in a fellow countryman. — Diana Wynne Jones

Hope is the forward-looking part of memory. — Diana Wynne Jones

I can't abide people who go soft over animals and then cheat every human they come across! — Diana Wynne Jones

Mainly as sort of blueprints for dealing with most of the adults in their lives, to some extent with their fellows. It is this notion of aiming high and there's always hope, aim low and you might as well stop now. — Diana Wynne Jones

Nobody can buy a hat without gossiping. — Diana Wynne Jones

Where's school?" he shrieked at her. "I'm missing cricket practice!" For half an hour after that the hospital was in total confusion, while everyone tried to catch a five-foot corpse clothed mostly in a flying sheet, which raced up and down the corridors shrieking that it was missing cricket practice. — Diana Wynne Jones

Mr. Lynn gave her one of his considering looks. "People are strange," he said. "Usually they're much stranger than you think. Start from there and you'll never be unpleasantly surprised. Do you fancy doughnuts? — Diana Wynne Jones

Polly finished her huge narrative during the summer term. The day after she had finished it, she went round with the oddest mixture of feelings, pride at having got it done, sick of the sight of it and glad it was over, and completely lost without it. — Diana Wynne Jones

Yes. I was looking for Lettie. They were both very kind to me," Percival said, "Even though they'd never seen me before. And Wizard Howl kept visiting to court Lettie. Lettie didn't want him, and she asked me to bite him to get rid of him, until Howl suddenly began asking her about you and - "
"what?"
he said, " I know someone called sophie who looks a little like you.. And Lettie said, that's my sister,' without thinking," Percival said. " And she got terribly worried then, particularly as Howl went on asking about her sister. — Diana Wynne Jones

Look. Survey. Inspect. My hair is ruined! I look like a pan of bacon and eggs! — Diana Wynne Jones

Things are going round and round in my head
or maybe my head is going round and round in things. — Diana Wynne Jones

He gave Sophie the smile which had no doubt charmed the Witch of the Waste and possibly Lettie too, firing it along the fork, across the cream, straight into Sophie's eyes, dazzlingly. "If you can bully Calcifer, the King should give you no trouble at all."
Sophie stared through the dazzle and said nothing. This, she thought, was where she slithered out. She was leaving. It was too bad about Calcifer's contract. She had had enough of Howl. First green slime, then glaring at her for something Calcifer had done quite freely, and now this! Tomorrow she would slip off to Upper Folding and tell Lettie all about it. — Diana Wynne Jones

Pie in a bed of raw onions. Human skull looking put-upon.
Howl — Diana Wynne Jones

And you're too nice," he added, above the lap-lap of the water and the patter of sand on the water-lily leaves. "I was relying on you being too jealous to let that demon near the place. — Diana Wynne Jones

Tell me about this Wizard Howl of yours."
"He's the best wizard in Ingary or anywhere else. If he'd only had time, he would have defeated that djinn. And he's sly and selfish and vain as a peacock and cowardly, and you can't pin him down to anything."
"Indeed? Strange that you should speak so proudly such a list of vices, most loving of ladies."
"What do you mean, vices? I was just describing Howl. He comes from another world entirely, you know, called Wales, and I refuse to believe he's dead! — Diana Wynne Jones

Howl,heart is a heavy burden. — Diana Wynne Jones

Writing for adults, you have to keep reminding them of what is going on. The poor things have given up using their brains when they read. Children you only need to tell things to once. — Diana Wynne Jones

The most she knew about gardens was the Bakers' own backyard, which contained one large mulberry tree and a rosebush, plus the window boxes where her mother grew runner beans. She knew there was earth under the plants and that the earth contained worms. She shuddered. — Diana Wynne Jones

Learn to drive?"
"Never," said Quentin. "My mission in life is to be a passenger. — Diana Wynne Jones

The most interesting thing was the talk from the customers. Nobody can buy a hat without gossiping. Sophie sat in her alcove and stitched and heard [ ... ] that Wizard Howl's castle had moved round to the cliffs again, really that man, whisper, whisper, whisper ... The voices always dropped low when they talked of Wizard Howl, [ ... ] Then there would be a fleeting, fearful whisper about the Witch of the Waste.
Sophie began to feel that Wizard Howl and the Witch of the Waste should get together. — Diana Wynne Jones

You people keep spoiling my plans. First Wizard Suliman would not come near the Waste, so that I had to threaten Princess Valeria in order to make the King order him out here. Then, when he came, he grew trees. — Diana Wynne Jones

She was remorseless, but she lacked method. — Diana Wynne Jones

Things we are accustomed to regard as myth or fairy story are very much present in people's lives. Nice people behave like wicked stepmothers. Every day. — Diana Wynne Jones

I'm going up to my room now, where I may die. — Diana Wynne Jones

City of Wizards is normally quite a GOOD thing, since only Good WIZARDS seem able to live together ... There have been cities of EVIL Wizards in the past. You will occasionally come across the sites of these, reduced to a glassy slag during the ultimate disagreement. — Diana Wynne Jones

All she heard next of the strange conversation behind the sofa was Mrs. Pendragon saying something about sending Twinkle (or was his name Howl?) to bed without supper and Twinkle daring her to 'jutht TRY it. — Diana Wynne Jones

There are no rules. Only principles and natural laws. — Diana Wynne Jones

I'm beginning to think I've led a much too sheltered life. — Diana Wynne Jones

And said grace in Welsh. It was all rolling, thundering language. — Diana Wynne Jones

Mother Very Easily Made Jam Sandwiches Under No Protest — Diana Wynne Jones

All these things that crib and cab in your brain, in your imagination, are in fact things that might well in later life drive you insane. — Diana Wynne Jones

Doras II was a somewhat absentminded king, It is said, when Death came to summon him, Doras granted Death the usual formal audience and then dismissed him from his presence. Death was too embarrassed to return until many years later- Ka'a Orto'o, Gnomic Utterances — Diana Wynne Jones

Really, these wizards! You'd think no one had ever had a cold before! Well, what is it?" she asked, hobbling through the bedroom door onto the filthy carpet.
"I'm dying of boredom," Howl said pathetically. "Or maybe just dying. — Diana Wynne Jones

Actually, in the wild, we'd be the only person that we wouldn't recognize, if you think about it. — Diana Wynne Jones

Howl's voice was presently heard shouting weakly, Help me, someone! I'm dying from neglect up here! — Diana Wynne Jones

If you take myth and folklore, and these things that speak in symbols, they can be interpreted in so many ways that although the actual image is clear enough, the interpretation is infinitely blurred, a sort of enormous rainbow of every possible colour you could imagine. — Diana Wynne Jones

After that, all the while Millie was eating the pudding ... we both tore Christopher's character to shreds. It was wonderful fun ... He drove everyone mad in Chrestomanci Castle by insisting on silk shirts and exactly the right kind of pajamas. 'And he could get them right anyway by magic,' Millie told me, 'if he wasn't too lazy to learn how ... But the thing that really annoys me is the way he never bothers to learn a person's name. If a person isn't important to him, he always forgets their name.'
When Millie said this, I realized that Christopher had never once forgotten my name ... — Diana Wynne Jones

Oh confound that gray-and-scarlet suit!" Sophie said. "I refuse to believe that I was the one that got caught with it! — Diana Wynne Jones

Alas, poor Yorick!" he said. "She heard mermaids, so it follows that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark. I have caught an everlasting cold, but luckily I am terribly dishonest. I cling to that. — Diana Wynne Jones

SHE LIKES MY SPARK!!!!--Calcifer — Diana Wynne Jones

She said 'Over my dead body!' so I took her at her word. — Diana Wynne Jones

I'm delirious. Spots are crawling before my eyes."
"Those are spiders. — Diana Wynne Jones

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

He held out his hand to Sophie, just like Mrs. Pentstemmon, but a little less royally. Sophie levered herself up, wondering if she was meant to kiss this hand or not. But since she felt more like raising her stick and beating the King over the head with it, she shook the King's hand and gave a creaking little curtsy. — Diana Wynne Jones

So you were going to rescue the Prince! Why did you pretend to run away? To deceive the Witch?"
"Not likely! I'm a coward. Only way I can do something this frightening is to tell myself I'm not doing it! — Diana Wynne Jones

At least, I suppose I can't blame Calcifer, since he's an evil demon. But you you Michael-!"
"I don't think I'm evil," Calcifer protested. — Diana Wynne Jones

Calcifer," Sophie said, "I shall have to break your contract. Will it kill you?" "It would if anyone else broke it," Calcifer said hoarsely. "That's why I asked you to do it. — Diana Wynne Jones

He picked up the skull and knocked an onion ring out of its eye socket.
"I see Sophie has been busy again. Couldn't you have restrained her, my friend?" The skull yattered its teeth at him. Howl put it down rather hastily. — Diana Wynne Jones

Don't interrupt,' one of the boys said. 'He'll lose his life.'
Seeing it was a matter of life and death, Sophie and Michael backed toward the door. But Howl, quite unperturbed at killing his nephew, strode over to the wall and pulled the boxes up by the roots. — Diana Wynne Jones

Tell me of this wizard Howl of yours."
Sophie's teeth chattered, but she said proudly, "He's the best wizard in Ingary or anywhere else. If he'd only had time, he would have defeated that djinn. And he's sly and selfish and vain as a peacock and cowardly, and you can't pin him down to do anything."
"Indded?" asked Abdullah. "Strange that you should speak so proudly such a list of vices, most loving of ladies."
"What do you mean, vices?" Sophie asked angrily. "I was just describing Howl! — Diana Wynne Jones

Christopher discovered that you dealt with obnoxious masters and most older boys the way you dealt with governesses: you quite politely told them the truth in the way they wanted to hear it, so that they thought they had won and left you in peace. — Diana Wynne Jones

All I did was ask you for a role-playing game. You never warned me I'd be pitched into it for real! And I asked you for hobbits on a grail quest, and not one hobbit have I seen! — Diana Wynne Jones

It seems to me that humour is everybody's way of keeping sane and standing off from the situations so that they can see it intellectually, as well as emotionally, and I don't know whether you've noticed, but if somebody tells a joke, it's nearly always a mini fantasy. — Diana Wynne Jones

I feel ill," he announced. "I'm going to bed, where I may die." He tottered piteously to the stairs. "Bury me beside Mrs. Pentstemmon," he croaked as he went up then to bed. — Diana Wynne Jones

Evidently this was the kind of man
that Estelle fell instantly in love with. — Diana Wynne Jones

In addition, Master Twinkle seems convinced that someone is denying him a pair of stripey trousers. — Diana Wynne Jones

Yes, you are nosy. You're a dreadfully nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman. Control yourself. You're victimizing us all. — Diana Wynne Jones

Go and catch a falling star, Get with child a mandrake root, Tell me where all past years are, Or who cleft the Devil's foot. Teach me to hear the mermaids singing, Or to keep off envy's stinging, And find What wind Serves to advance an honest mind. Decide what this is about Write a second verse yourself — Diana Wynne Jones

I'm going to bed, where I may die. — Diana Wynne Jones