Despereaux Quotes

I will be brave, thought Despereaux. I will try to be brave like a knight in shining armour. I will be brave for the Princess Pea. ~ Kate DiCamillo

Reader, do you believe that there is such a thing as happily ever after? Or, like Despereaux, have you, too, begun to question the possibility of happy endings? ~ Kate DiCamillo

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. ~ Kate DiCamillo

Furlough?" He said.
"What?" said the first hood irritably.
Despereaux shuddered. His own brother was delivering him to the dungeon. His heart stopped beating and shrunk to a small, cold, disbelieving pebble. ~ Kate DiCamillo

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

Like most hearts, it was complicated, shaded with dark and dappled with light. ~ Kate DiCamillo

Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform. ~ Kate DiCamillo

They lived happily ever after. It said so. In the book. They were the last words on the page. Happily ever after. Despereaux was sure that he had read exactly those words time and time again.
Lying on the floor with the drum beating and the mice shouting ... Despereaux had a sudden, chilling thought: Had some other mouse eaten the words that spoke the truth? Did the knight and the fair maiden really not live happily ever after? ~ Kate DiCamillo

Despereaux looked at his father, at his grey-streaked fur and trembling whiskers and his front paws clasped together in front of his heart, and he felt suddenly as if his own heart would break in two. His father looked so small, so sad.
"Forgive me," said Lester again.
Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love - a powerful, wonderful thing.
And a ridiculous thing, too.
Isn't it ridiculous, after all, to think that a son could forgive his father for beating the drum that sent him to his death? Isn't it ridiculous to think that a mouse ever could forgive anyone for such perfidy?
But still, here are the words Despereaux Tilling spoke to his father. He said, "I forgive you, Pa."
And he said those words because he sensed it was the only way to save his own heart, to stop it from breaking in two. Despereaux, reader, spoke those words to save himself. ~ Kate DiCamillo

There is somebody who loves me," said Despereaux. "And I love her and that is the only thing that matters to me. ~ Kate DiCamillo

Despereaux was reading the story out loud to himself. He was reading from the beginning so that he could get to the end ... ~ Kate DiCamillo

You, friend, are on a quest." "I don't know what that is," said Despereaux. "You don't have to know. You just have to feel compelled to do the thing, the impossible, important task at hand. ~ Kate DiCamillo

Despereaux turned. He looked up and into the Head Mouse's eyes. They were dark eyes, deep and sad and frightened. And as Despereaux looked into them, his heart thudded once, twice. ~ Kate DiCamillo

The sound of the king's music made Despereaux's soul grow large and light inside of him. ~ Kate DiCamillo

Love is ridiculous. But love is also wonderful. And powerful. And Despereaux's love for the Princess Pea would prove, in time, to be all of these things: powerful, wonderful, and ridiculous. ~ Kate DiCamillo

At the thought of being eaten by rats, Despereaux forgot about being brave. He forgot about not being a disappointment. He felt himself heading into another faint. But his mother, who had an excellent sense of dramatic timing, beat him to it; she executed a beautiful, flawless swoon, landing right at Despereaux's feet. ~ Kate DiCamillo