Friday Quotes: It's all DWJ this week

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Since this week I had focused on reading books by Diana Wynne Jones I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate this week's page of quotes to her.

I really had so much fun immersing myself in Jones's world of the Chrestomanci and I even managed to fit in Howl's Moving Castle, which I loved and will review next week.
I still have many more of her books that I intend to read and I will be trying to fit them in between my other readings whenever I have the chance.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy these quotes as well as the reviews I have put up so far and that some of them may have inspired you to try her books, if you never had before.
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Diana Wynne Jones Quotes:

• Fantasy for me as a kid was real, and I had a fantasy about what life was, whether it was sort of wicked and dire, or wholly normal, or whatever. Anything really close to home is not, it seems to me, what a good book should be about.
  

• This does make me very very careful, particularly in the second draft, to get it right, because you do feel that somebody in the future who may be extremely important for everybody, is going to have me behind them, and this is a responsibility, a huge one.
  

• If you think you're a genius at something, what you achieve is very much according to your expectations; if you think you're no good, you're not going to get anywhere. If you think you're moderate, you're only going to get halfway to moderate, because you get half-way to where you're aiming every time, really.

• I was shaken completely to my socks about 5 years ago now; I went to a fantasy convention and I was suddenly accosted by this very interesting Canadian writer whose things I'd admired. His name's Charles de Lint, and he said he wanted to tell me that he wouldn't be writing now as he does had he not read my books when he was a teenager. He said they completely revolutionized his way of thinking. And indeed, I could see why I liked his things so much, because, probably, it was the sorts of things he'd got from me.

Quotes from Diana Wynne Jones Books

• "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." (Castle in the Air)

• "If I give you a hint and tell you it's a hint, it will be information." (Howl's Moving Castle)

• "I can't abide people who go soft over animals and then cheat every human they come across!" (Castle in the Air)
  

• She's not stupid, she just never lets her mind out. (House of Many Ways)
  

• He left the room like a very long procession of one person (regarding the Chrestomanci)
  

• It is quite a risk to spank a wizard for getting hysterical about his hair. (Howl's Moving Castle)
  

• Fellow Travellers: These are people who join the Tour for a short while and then leave or get killed. If they have names and characters, then you will be sorry to lose them. Otherwise, not. (The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land)
  

• Great numbers of Elves have become so wearied with the old golden ways that they have all departed, departed into the West. This is correct, provided that you take it with the understanding that Elves do not say anything quite straight. Many Elves have indeed gone west, to Minnesota and thence to California, and finally to Arizona, where they have great fun wearing punk clothes and riding motorbikes." (The Tough Guide to Fantasy Land)

• "Eternal Quest: see Quest, Eternal."
  "Quest, Eternal: see Eternal Quest."
  (The Tough Guide to Fantasyland)

Neil Gaiman's Ode to Diana Wynne Jones:

There's a kitten curled up in Kilkenny was given a perfect pot of cream,
And a princess asleep in a thornwrapped castle who's dreaming a perfect dream,
There's a dog in Alaska who danced with delight on a pile of mastodon bones,
But I got a copy of Hexwood (dedicated to me) by Diana Wynne Jones.

There's an actress who clutches her oscar (and sobs, with proper impromptu joy),
There's a machievellian villain who's hit on a wonderf'lly evil ploy,
There's wizards in crystal castles and kings on their golden thrones,
But I got a copy of Hexwood -- dedicated -- to me! -- by Diana Wynne Jones

There are fishermen out on the sea today who just caught the perfect fish,
There's a child in Luton who opened a genie-filled bottle, and got a wish,
There are people who live in glass houses have managed to outlaw stones --
But I've got a copy of Hexwood, dedicated to me by Diana Wynne Jones