Joan Aiken Quotes

Words are like spices. Too many is worse than too few. ~ Joan Aiken

Her smile was like a swift light passing across a darkened room.
("Hair") ~ Joan Aiken

Children read to learn - even when they are reading fantasy, nonsense, light verse, comics or the copy on cereal packets, they are expanding their minds all the time, enlarging their vocabulary, making discoveries - it is all new to them. ~ Joan Aiken

If reading becomes a bore, mental death is on the way. Children taught to read by tedious mechanical means rapidly learn to skim over the dull text without bothering to delve into its implications
which in time will make them prey to propaganda and to assertions based on scanty evidence, or none. ~ Joan Aiken

A children's writer should, ideally, be a dedicated semi-lunatic, a kind of poet with a marvelous idea, who, preferably, when not committing the marvellous idea to paper, does something else of a quite different kind, so as to acquire new and rich experience. ~ Joan Aiken

Sudden wealth was the great insulator, second only to sudden bereavement. ~ Joan Aiken

When the Whispering Mountain shall scream aloud
And the castle of Malyn ride on a cloud,
Then Malyn's lord shall have and hold
The lost that is found, the harp of gold.
Then Fig-hat Ben shall wear a shroud,
Then shall the despoiler, that was so proud,
Plunge headlong down from Devil's Leap;
Then shall the Children from darkness creep,
And the men of the glen avoid disaster,
And the Harp of Teirtu find her master. ~ Joan Aiken

Why do we want to have alternate worlds? It's a way of making progress. You have to imagine something before you do it. ~ Joan Aiken

She thought about Penny's stories. There was one about a man who had three wishes and married a swan. If I had three wishes, I know what I'd wish for, thought Is. I'd wish for those two boys to be found, and for us all to be back on Blackheath Edge. She thought about Penny teaching her to read. "What's the point of reading?" Is had grumbled at first. "You can allus tell me stories, that's better than reading." "I'll not always be here," Penny had said shortly. "Besides, once you can read, you can learn somebody else. Folk should teach each other what they know." "Why?" "If you don't learn anything, you don't grow. And someone's gotta learn you."
Well, thought Is, if I get outta here, I'll be able to learn some other person the best way to get free from a rolled-up rug. ~ Joan Aiken

Eat an apple,sing a song,
Don't touch a snake as it wriggles along.
Run for an hour, walk for a day,
Hark to the birds and heed what they say. ~ Joan Aiken

The silence behind her was closing and thickening, and becoming coloured, like water into which a brilliant dye is being poured ~ Joan Aiken

But this is your home'
'Not any longer, my poppet. Women make nests but men make bequests and scatter them. Heigh-ho! ~ Joan Aiken

No moral to this story, you will be saying, and I am afraid it is true. ~ Joan Aiken

You may think it odd that there were three men to look after one tiny station, but the people who ran the railway knew that if you left two men together in a lonely place they would quarrel, but if you left three men, two of them could always grumble to each other about the third, and then they would be quite happy. ~ Joan Aiken

As cows need milking and sweet peas need picking, so writers must continually exercise their mental muscles by a daily stint. ~ Joan Aiken

Since each child reads only about six hundred books in the course of childhood, each book should nourish them in some way - with new ideas, insight, humor, or vocabulary. ~ Joan Aiken

Night's winged horses
No one can outpace
But midnight is no moment
Midnight is a place.
Meet me at Midnight,
Among the Queen Anne's Lace
Midnight is not a moment,
Midnight is a place
When, when shall I meet you
When shall I see your face
For I am living in time at present
But you are living in space.
Time is only a corner
Age is only a fold
A year is merely a penny
Spent from a century's gold.
So meet me, meet me at midnight
(With sixty seconds' grace)
Midnight is not a moment;
Midnight is a place. ~ Joan Aiken

The first book that a child reads has a colossal impact. ~ Joan Aiken

I have always been interested in the way that elements of stories twine and combine. At school I had an art teacher, a great influence on me, who disliked man-made objects unless they were old and showed the effects of time and wear; she loved all natural things. I share this attitude and it plays a large part in my writing. I'm fascinated by the ambiguity of man's relationship to the huge, mysterious universe around him; how, on the one hand, we make ourselves little boxes and think to exist safely and snugly in them; on the other, we extend our knowledge further and further into the limitless void; and yet from time to time these opposites collide and produce astonishing results. ~ Joan Aiken

Stories ought not to be just little bits of fantasy that are used to wile away an idle hour; from the beginning of the human race stories have been used - by priests, by bards, by medicine men - as magic instruments of healing, of teaching, as a means of helping people come to terms with the fact that they continually have to face insoluble problems and unbearable realities. ~ Joan Aiken

It was dusk - winter dusk. Snow lay white and shining over the pleated hills, and icicles hung from the forest trees. Snow lay piled on the dark road across Willoughby Wold, but from dawn men had been clearing it with brooms and shovels. There were hundreds of them at work, wrapped in sacking because of the bitter cold, and keeping together in groups for fear of the wolves, grown savage and reckless from hunger. ~ Joan Aiken

I was having a field day down the Westend; my deep pockets were jingling and full of money nearly every day of the week. My brother's bird, Irene, wanted a fur coat, so I got her one by throwing a brick through the shop window and grabbing the coat off the shop dummy. Once I got to the bed-sit, I put the jacket on and waltzed in to the flat looking like Liberace, the two of them burst out laughing. Irene was like a tramp eating chips.
'Let's try it on, Jimmy, please?'
As she swooned around like Joan Collins with the fur coat on, she had the air of a council estate beauty queen about her. ~ Stephen Richards

Infatuation cannot be sustained indefinitely, my friend. Love that embraces the entire person is a monumental gift that takes time to grow. ~ Joan Bauer

Aiken nodded. 'I get it. But the King is getting a bit long in the tooth for that kind of adventure. Rogering maidens is more his style these days. ~ Julian May

Don't follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise. ~ Joan Rivers

Through music I've discovered other philosophies. Buddhism in particular is one that has always - whenever I've studied it and read about it, it's just been so true to me. And I do try to take some practices of that into my daily life. Whether that's meditating or trying to see the world from that perspective. ~ Joan Osborne

esophagus. Certain
foods, including chocolate, fried or fatty foods, coffee, soda, onions, and garlic, seem
to be associated with this condition.
19
Lifestyle factors also play a role. For example,
smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, wearing tight-fitting clothes, being overweight
or obese, eating large evening meals, and reclining after eating tend to cause or
worsen the condition. ~ Joan Salge Blake

If you want to complain you don't have to look long:
in most anything you can find something wrong.
But if you want to ignite your inner light,
try to find in everything something right. ~ Joan Marques

I like every part of growing older except what happens to your feet.
Written by Avis DeVoto to Julia Child in As Always, Julia ~ Joan Reardon

We gain the insight to see ourselves through the friendships we make. They mirror us to ourselves. In them we see clearly what we do not have as well as what the world cannot do without. They do not judge us or condemn us or reject us. They hold us up while we grow, laughing and playing as we go. They bring us to the best of ourselves. "One's friends," George Santayana wrote, "are that part of the human race with which one can be human. ~ Joan D. Chittister

Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant. ~ Joan Didion

I adore my two older sisters, Erika and Betsy. ~ Joan Smalls

She lived her life as a dragon and never understood those who didn't. Why anyone would want to be human was beyond her understanding ... And damn it all, she was brilliant! ~ G.A. Aiken

In my box of sound bites there are no jackhammers, no snowmobiles, no Jet Skis, no children wailing. Music but no Muzak.
It's my box. Put what you want in yours. ~ Joan Oliver Goldsmith

While making "Possessed", I wept each morning on my drive to the studio, and I wept all the way back home. I found it impossible to sleep at night, so I'd lie in bed contemplating the future. I fear it with all my heart and soul even as I fear the dark. ~ Joan Crawford

About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they're just one thing. ~ Joan Of Arc

Who are we beyond the roles that we play? ~ Joan Anderson

I would so much rather be vulnerable and experience existence than be strong and defend myself from it. ~ Joan Z. Spade

Isn't three quarters of life a guilty pleasure? ~ Joan Collins

If you are having trouble making a chord, get a book, that is how I learned. There are guitar tuning apps so you can tune your guitar, and just learn how to play along with your records. And it's great to be able to play along with another musician. That is like trial by fire. ~ Joan Jett

Stop it! Both of you!" the dragon called out. "I have enough beauty to share with everyone!" Ignoring the beautiful but useless dragon, ~ G.A. Aiken

We are the ghosts of the singing furies . ~ Conrad Aiken

I've always got something to say. ~ Joan Jett

Missing some people was like missing air. You did yourself no favors by wondering how you survived without them. ~ Joan He

Their suburbia house in Brentwood was how she referred to the house when we bought it, a twelve-year-old establishing that it was not her decision, not her taste, a child claiming the distance all children imagine themselves to need. ~ Joan Didion

If our words cannot enhance the peace
We should keep quiet and use our ears
The extent of our perception will increase
As we'll be less to blame for others' tears ~ Joan Marques

She preferred keeping her mouth shut and appearing a fool to opening it and removing the doubt. ~ Joan Smith

Maryanne paid for her purchases, and once everything was stuffed into the blue plastic bags, she headed toward the exit. That's when she spotted her tail again... not six feet away.

"Here," she said, thrusting her purchases at J.Z.'s middle. "Since you're sticking to me like used bubble gum to my shoes, you can make yourself useful. Carry these to my car, please."

She left him, arms full of bags, jaw agape, and wend to buy a soft pretzel and an icy drink. ~ Ginny Aiken

You don't approve?" Joan asked, picking up on Delphine's tone.
"Their stories were for themselves, not the Mirrors."
"What do you mean?" said Bea.
"Certainly sometimes a good little character would find a lamp, and would not be so corrupted by the strangely endless possibilities of three wishes that they ended up causing more harm than they ever imagined. Those stories fostered belief, they were retold, certainly; but they were few and far between. Most of the genie's tales showed the characters exactly who they really were, not when they were despised and degraded, not when they'd reached the gutter and been given licence to look at the stars. No, the genies showed them who they were when they were invincible. The characters, they try to forget stories like that. ~ F.D. Lee

When you look at the world, the world isn't just one palette. It's a beautiful rainbow, and why not have someone to represent that rainbow? ~ Joan Smalls

My brother Mark still lives in the house we grew up in. ~ Joan Van Ark

I just don't understand our brother. A human." Briec gave a great sigh, causing Gwenvael to roll his eyes in annoyance.
"You don't know anything, Briec. She's different."
"Don't you really mean crazed, baby brother?"
Gwenvael saw Morfyd's white scales swooping toward them. He stood up. Both he and Briec were already in human form and dressed.
"You're just mad she slapped you around." Gwenvael looked at his brother. "Like a bitch."
Briec stood up. Slightly taller than Gwenvael, but still shorter than Fearghus, he tended to be just as much fun to torture as their older sibling. "I let her hit me."
"You had to. Otherwise she would have killed you where you stood. ~ G.A. Aiken

I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia (sister Olivia de Havilland) did, and if I die first, she'll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it! ~ Joan Fontaine

My parents hated me. All I ever heard was, "Why can't you be like your cousin Shelia? Why can't you be like your cousin Shelia?" Shelia had died at birth. ~ Joan Rivers

Mum?" Addolgar said to his mother.
"Because I love him," she reminded them all as she'd been doing for centuries. "That's what I'm doing with your father. I love him. So, honestly - just let it go already. ~ G.A. Aiken

What I want, and this is what I want for myself and for all of my fellow sad young literary girls, is to be able to read something without it fundamentally altering how you write or read or talk about the things you like, to invite more nuance and more complexity to everything, to over-examine your likes and dislikes and hold them to the highest scrutiny, until you are the thing that stays still in a turning world of people who can keep themselves still as well ["Free Joan Didion," The Awl, January 13, 2015]. ~ Hailey Mlotek

Everywhere I looked, hope existed - but only as some kind of green shoot in the midst of struggle. It was a theological concept, not a spiritual practice. Hope, I began to realize, was not a state of life. It was at best a gift of life. ~ Joan D. Chittister

People shock me when they say they never read. When I was young, if people didn't read they would never admit it. Now, its quite acceptable to be anti-intellectual. ~ Joan Vass

Ghostly above us in lamplight the towers gleam ... and after a while they will fall to dust and rain; or else we will tear them down with impatient hands; and hew rock out of the earth, and build them again. ~ Conrad Aiken

With age comes wisdom. You don't need big boobs to be feminine. Look at Liberace. ~ Joan Rivers

We both know what memories can bring / They bring diamonds and rust. ~ Joan Baez

People who have recently lost someone have a certain look, recognizable maybe only to those who have seen that look on their own faces. I have noticed it on my face and I notice it now on others. The look is one of extreme vulnerability, nakedness, openness. It is the look of someone who walks from the ophthalmologist's office into the bright daylight with dilated eyes, or of someone who wears glasses and is suddenly made to take them off. These people who have lost someone look naked because they think themselves invisible. I myself felt invisible for a period of time, incorporeal. I seemed to have crossed one of those legendary rivers that divide the living from the dead, entered a place in which I could be seen only by those who were themselves recently bereaved. I understood for the first time the power in the image of the rivers, the Styx, the Lethe, the cloaked ferryman with his pole. I understood for the first time the meaning in the practice of suttee. Widows did not throw themselves on the burning raft out of grief. The burning raft was instead an accurate representation of the place to which their grief (not their families, not the community, not custom, their grief) had taken them. ~ Joan Didion

Before I settled on music, I wanted to be an archaeologist, an astronaut, all sorts of really diverse things. ~ Joan Jett

Yes, I remember the bombings. Yes, I remember, because - yes, I remember being in air raid shelters. Even though I was evacuated because I was very young, I remember being in air raid shelters and the tremendous feeling of compatibility with everybody. ~ Joan Collins

I've
enjoyed our conversation, knight. It's been nice talking to someone
who can - "
"Create full and complete sentences?"
That grin returned and, for a moment, his heart actually stopped
beating. "No, it was nice to finally meet someone whose arrogance is
only rivaled by the arrogance of the gods. ~ G.A. Aiken

It doesn't really matter to me how I make a difference, I just wanna make sure that I do. ~ Clay Aiken

During the last year she was alive, at age 95, my mother said many times, "It's so freeing to realize that nothing really matters." She said it joyously, with relief, as if a burden had been lifted. She also said over and over, "Love yourself".

Tollifson, Joan. Nothing to Grasp (p. 174). New Harbinger Publications. Kindle Edition. ~ Joan Tollifson