Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head.
Reading0When a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear. For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists.
Imagination0Everybody has a secret world inside of them. All of the people of the world, I mean everybody. No matter how dull and boring they are on the outside, inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds. Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe.
0Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable.
Love0The sky had never seemed so sky; the world had never seemed so world.
World, Sky0'Because,' she said, 'when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave.'
Fear, Courage0Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
Fairytales0People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.
0You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.
0Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
0We accept the love we think we deserve.
0Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable.
0The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.
Books, Imagination, Reading, Children's Books0So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.
Books, Comforting, Reading, Children's Books0All the reading she had done had given her a view of life they had never seen.
Reading, Children's Books0And all the colors I am inside have not been invented yet.
Character0I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.
Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.
0Promise me you'll never forget me because if I thought you would, I'd never leave.
Farewell, Forgetting, Children's Books0You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.
Children's Books0"Sometimes,' said Pooh, 'the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."
Heart, Small Things, Children's Books0The things that make me different are the things that make me.
Character, Self-Confidence, Children's Books0You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
Self-Confidence, Children's Books0“How do you spell 'love'?" - "You don't spell it... you feel it."
Love, Children's Books0If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
Freedom0All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Animals0For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable - what then?
0Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.
Revolution0If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love.
Love0But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.
Thoughts, Languages0If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself.
0Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
Future, Past0Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.
Understanding0Sarcastic people tend to be marshmallows underneath the armor.
Sarcasm0A person who doesn't learn from the past is an idiot, in my estimation.
Experience, Past0I'm one of those people who doesn't really know what he thinks until he writes it down.
Writing0Stupidity is one of the two things we see most clearly in retrospect. The other is missed chances.
Foolishness0If there is love, smallpox scars are as pretty as dimples. I'll love your face no matter what it looks like. Because it's yours.
Love declerations0When all else fails, give up and go to the library.
Books, Reading0But I believe in love, you know; love is a uniquely portable magic. I don’t think it’s in the stars, but I do believe that blood calls to blood and mind calls to mind and heart to heart.
Love0At this point his dream stuttered; it caught in his mind like a bone in a throat.
0You could get used to anything if you had to. She knew that now.
0The world is a worst case scenario and I'm afraid that all you sense is true.
0The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted.
World0It was like drowning, only from the inside out.
0There is no shame in not knowing something. The shame is in not being willing to learn.
0'You can go home now,' Tom told us.
'We'll meet next week. Then we can rob somebody and kill some people.'