The best Quotes from The Tale of Despereaux

The world is dark, and light is precious.
Come closer, dear reader.
You must trust me.
I am telling you a story.

There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name.

"Once upon a time," he said out loud to the darkness. He said these words because they were the best, the most powerful words that he knew and just the saying of them comforted him.

Love, as we have already discussed, is a powerful, wonderful, ridiculous thing, capable of moving mountains.

This is the danger of loving: No matter how powerful you are, no matter how many kingdoms you rule, you cannot stop those you love from dying.

But, reader, there is no comfort in the word "farewell", even if you say it in French. "Farewell" is a word that, in any language, is full of sorrow. It is a word that promises absolutely nothing.

Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark.

Say it, reader. Say the word "quest" out loud. It is an extraordinary word, isn't it? So small and yet so full of wonder, so full of hope.

Reader, do you think it is a terrible thing to hope when there is really no reason to hope at all? Or is it (as the soldier said about happiness) something that you might just as well do, since, in the end, it really makes no difference to anyone but you?

Despereaux marveled at his own bravery.
He admired his own defiance.
And then, reader, he fainted.

Open your heart. Someone will come. Someone will come for you. But first you must open your heart.

There ain't no way you can hold onto something that wants to go, you understand? You can only love what you got while you got it.

How will the world change if we do not question it?

You can't always judge people by the things they done. You got to judge them by what they are doing now.

It is a bad thing to have love and nowhere to put it.

"Once there was a princess who was very beautiful. She shone bright as the stars on a moonless night. But what difference did it make that she was beautiful? None. No difference."
"Why did it make no difference?" asked Abilene.
"Because," said Pellegrina, "She was a princess who loved no one and cared nothing for love, even though there were many who loved her."

"Perhaps," said the man, "you would like to be lost with us. I have found it much more agreeable to be lost in the company of others."

I have been loved, Edward told the stars. So? said the stars. What difference does that make when you are all alone now?

Nothing would be easier without you, because you are everything, all of it- sprinkles, quarks, giant donuts, eggs sunny-side up- you are the ever-expanding universe to me.

Magic is always impossible.... It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it's magic.

Look at me, he said to her. His arms and legs jerked. Look at me. You got your wish. I have learned how to love. And it's a terrible thing. I'm broken. My heart is broken. Help me. The old woman turned and hobbled away. Come back, thought Edward. Fix me.

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.

Hands down, the biggest thrill is to get a letter from a kid saying, I loved your book.

When I was starting to write, I was fascinated with 'Knuffle Bunny' by Mo Willems. I remember taking it home and typing it out, trying to figure out how it worked. It's just a classic, with dauntingly few words.

I have no talents. But I do have hope. And wonder. And love. Maybe those are talents?

I hate to cook and love to eat.

You have to learn how to write each book.

Reading is a hobby, but for some of us, it's an escape from the difficulties we face. To all of you who escape into books, I want to thank you for escaping into this one.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.

We all remember the bed time stories of our childhoods. The shoe fits Cinderella, the frog turns into a prince, sleeping beauty is awakened with a kiss. Once upon a time and then they lived happily ever after. Fairy tales, the stuff of dreams. The problem is, fairy tales don't come true. It's the other stories, the ones that begin with dark and stormy nights and end in the unspeakable. It's the nightmares that always seem to become reality. The person that invented the phrase "Happily ever after" should have his ass kicked, so hard!

It takes much more courage to be in love than it does for war.

Those that we love never truly leave us, Harry. There are things that death cannot touch.

Never say goodbye, because goodbye means going away - and going away means forgetting.

Word to the wise writer: never underestimate your secondary characters! But watch them... they sneak off with stuff.

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.

Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you can see it, you'll never make it through the night.

"Oh yes, time flies and before you know it you're old," said Pippi. "Come autumn I'll be ten, and I suppose I'll be past my prime then."

People say "nothing is impossible", but I do nothing every day.

The Rainbow Fish shared his scales left and right. And the more he gave away, the more delighted he became.

The beginning is always dark.

Once there was a boy. He was, let us say, something like fourteen years old; long and loose jointed and towheaded. He wasn't good for much, that boy. His chief delight was to eat and sleep, and after that he liked best to make mischief.

One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and - pop! - out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar.

And the wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws.

Walk until the darkness is a memory, and you become the sun on the next traveler's horizon.