Margaret Mahy Quotes

I am really chained to my computer these days so I work in my bedroom, which is a room I have worked in for years and years. It is just as much an office as a bedroom, and during the day, my bed is rather like an extension of my desk. ~ Margaret Mahy

It's so dark - as if all the lights are just there to make the other places seem darker. ~ Margaret Mahy

Do you think that clothes have a life of their own, and maybe have unsuitable affairs with opposite styles? I mean - you look at some people - their clothes go on flirting long after the people inside them have lost interest. ~ Margaret Mahy

... But don't be late, Troy, or I'll ... " She hesitated and laughed, not entirely happily. "I don't suppose I'll ever need to worry about you again, will I? I don't suppose I've ever needed to worry over a magician."
"There are always car accidents," Tabitha declared cheerfully. "A car could come around the corner and ... wallop! You'd need a terrific magician to get out of that one ... "
"Or eagles dropping tortoises," Troy added, looking amused. "That happened in Ancient Greece, you know. An eagle dropped a tortoise on some dramatist and killed him."
"No eagles or tortoises here," said Tabitha, "but a bit could fall off a plane. ~ Margaret Mahy

New Zealand is the only country I know well enough to write about. It can sometimes lead to complications. ~ Margaret Mahy

Reading is very creative - it's not just a passive thing. I write a story; it goes out into the world; somebody reads it and, by reading it, completes it. ~ Margaret Mahy

Family! ... You might just as well celebrate battle, murder and sudden death. ~ Margaret Mahy

Anyhow, isn't it a bit wrong to think happiness is all smooth and serene. Isn't it mostly a great energetic struggle - you against the universe - a great whopping opponent, with the referee in its pocket? ~ Margaret Mahy

There are always two people involved in cruelty, aren't there? One to be vicious and someone to suffer! And what's the use of getting rid of - of wickedness, say - in the outside world if you let it creep back into things from inside you? ~ Margaret Mahy

There are certainly times when my own everyday life seems to retreat so the life of the story can take me over. That is why a writer often needs space and time, so that he or she can abandon ordinary life and 'live' with the characters. ~ Margaret Mahy

What's happened to the world? she was thinking. Everything has turned terrible ... and the bits that aren't terrible have gone mad. I don't understand anything anymore. ~ Margaret Mahy

I once knew a house rather like The Land of Smiles - an old house occupied by a varied collection of young people, mainly students. However none of these people were true models for the characters in the book, though their way of life may have been. ~ Margaret Mahy

Every writer has to find their own way into writing. ~ Margaret Mahy

I had to wait for a long time before I could support myself with writing. However, being a writer is what I have most wanted to be, from the time I was a child. ~ Margaret Mahy

Fattening!" said Troy, looking at Tabitha's round face and plump arms.

"If I don't mind being fat, I don't see why other people should feel they've got to mind for me," Tabitha replied cheerfully. "And pies have got some food value – they've got vitamins or something, haven't they, Claire? ~ Margaret Mahy

You won't forget that," Claire assured her.
"I like things written down," Tabitha mumbled. "Then you've got them for good. ~ Margaret Mahy

Writing for young children I find I often use particular jokes with words and exaggerated, funny events, but some of these haunt the more complex stories for older children too. ~ Margaret Mahy

I don't know everything I feel, but I do know this. You mustn't ever want anyone but me, Big Science. If you look at any other girl I'll kill her. ~ Margaret Mahy

Stamp, your name is to be Laura. I'm sharing my name with you. I'm putting my power into you and you must do my work. Don't listen to anyone but me. You are to be my command laid on my enemy. you'll make a hole in him through which he'll drip away until he runs dry. As he drips out darkness, we'll smile together, me inside, you outside. We'll crush him between our smiles. ~ Margaret Mahy

I hope I am not too repetitive. However, coming to terms with death is part of the general human situation. ~ Margaret Mahy

Practise make it perfect! ~ Margaret Mahy

My theory is that I decided to be a writer when I was about seven, but of course it is not as simple as that. Like most writers, I had to work at other things to earn a living and wrote mainly in the evenings, often very late at night, for many years. ~ Margaret Mahy

Will you still love me when I'm a monster? ~ Margaret Mahy

For in some ways the world was like a shopping centre, and he himself was a doubtful customer, often ineffectual, being talked into buying things he didn't want, things indeed which nobody in their right mind would want to buy. ~ Margaret Mahy

Something is going to happen, Laura thought. She was going to be kissed. On one side of a kiss was childhood, sunshine,innocence, toys and, on the other, people embracing, darkness, passion and the admittance of a person who, no matter how loved, must always have a quality of otherness, not only to her confidence, but somehow inside her sealing skin. ~ Margaret Mahy

Time was too much a part of love, for even in fairytales the proof of love was not its first moment, but its latest ones - that people lived happily ever after. Love at first sight was nothing but infatuation until proved by time ... ~ Margaret Mahy

Your Barney?" Cole's eyebrows shot up.
"Yours?"

"He's mine all right!" Claire replied.

"Everyone in this family belongs to everyone else – belongs with everyone else, rather. I've looked after him for a year now – ironed his shirts, made his school lunches, told him stories. I made that dressing gown he's wearing, whereas no one knew you were alive this time last week. But what matters most is that he wants to be ours and he doesn't want to be yours. That's what counts. ~ Margaret Mahy

Ellis's understanding of himself and the world around him certainly develops because of his adventures, and part of that development comes through recognizing other people for what they are. ~ Margaret Mahy

I'm the Beast. You're the Beauty," he said. "It's all a story, isn't it? ~ Margaret Mahy

I, personally, have found reading a continual support to writing. ~ Margaret Mahy

The novels take longer to write than the picture book texts, and they do take a different sort of concentration. However, a very short, simple story that works well is just as exciting to me as any longer and more complex book. ~ Margaret Mahy

The shop for fuller figures could be seen through broad, green leaves, its windows full, not of dresses, but fat zeros, pot-bellied legless sixes and bosomy eights, and threes like pregnant, primitive goddesses. In the teashop the chairs were being stood on top of the tables and made a forest of their own, sprouting upwards in fountains of coloured leaves. ~ Margaret Mahy

It is a good idea to know which publishers publish which stories. For example, there is no sense in sending a picture book text to a publisher who does not publish picture books. ~ Margaret Mahy

In a way, the characters often do take over. ~ Margaret Mahy

She wanted everyone kind and affectionate, not passionate and tormenting – everything open, no maggoty secrets and silences, and no arguments with other, darker arguments hidden in them. ~ Margaret Mahy

Pulverized by literature,' thought Miss Laburnum. 'The ideal way for a librarian to die. ~ Margaret Mahy

If people fainted from too much thinking I'd scarcely ever be conscious," Tabitha began at once. "I think and think all the time, and I've never fainted – not once." She looked over at Barney enviously. "Why do the best things always happen to other people and not to a promising writer? ~ Margaret Mahy

All right," said Eden. "After all, we've got to hide somewhere. And even if they move on a bit faster than we can, they'll still leave signs, won't they?
"Yes, they'll drip blood and leave echoes of people laughing," said Timon in a dark voice. Eden looked at him apprehensively. But then Timon laughed himself. "Joking! Joking! Only joking!" he cried, and Eden nodded, echoing his laughter rather uncertainly. ~ Margaret Mahy

I don't want to spin the world," Barney said. "I don't know what I want, but I do know it's not that."

"Nor do I!" Claire shook her head. "Poor Troy" If you can do almost anything, it's all the harder to choose the right thing to do. Poor Cole, too – coming in like a lion and then staying like a pet lamb. I suppose if most of us were asked, we'd think that magicians would be free of care, but somehow or other there are always
rules. ~ Margaret Mahy

There's a lot of things you can put up with, as long as you're not related to them. ~ Margaret Mahy

At the same time, I think books create a sort of network in the reader's mind, with one book reinforcing another. Some books form relationships. Other books stand in opposition. No two writers or readers have the same pattern of interaction. ~ Margaret Mahy

Perhaps every time anyone is praised it means that someone else somewhere is going to be ignored ~ Margaret Mahy

Then, at last, sitting on her stretcher-bed, she took from the very bottom of her pack an old peacock-blue scarf folded around a heavy, square book. She unwrapped it and opened it very carefully, as if guilty secrets might fall from between its pages like pressed flowers. This was Harry's secret. She was a writer. ~ Margaret Mahy

This was the hidden machinery of life, not a clean, clinical well-oiled engine, monitored by a thousand meticulous dials, but a crazy, stumbling contraption made up of strange things roughly fitted together – things like a huge water tap, the dogleg stairs, cheese in the soap dish, and a crocheted tea cosy stiff with dirt and topped by a doll's broken face. ~ Margaret Mahy

I think I am too interested in my own ideas to copy anyone else's, but I find that other people's imagery, the flow of language in the outside world, games with words, and ideas about relationships are all most important to me. ~ Margaret Mahy

I've never actually been a fighter myself - fighting tires me out and I'm not an efficient fighter anyway - but I have certainly seen other people have great complicated goes at one another. ~ Margaret Mahy

I notice that when people have no sense of responsibility, you call them either criminals or geniuses. ~ Margaret Deland

So by the time the morning came, Odysseus and I were indeed friends, as Odysseus had promised we would be. Or let me put it another way: I myself had developed friendly feelings towards him - more than that, loving and passionate ones - and he behaved as if he reciprocated them. Which is not quite the same thing. ~ Margaret Atwood

Dance today is clearly in an unsettled state. Old forms and traditions are being given up. New ones are arising to take their place. A time of change presents a confused picture. That there is change is proof that dance is organically vital
and much more so than it has ever before been in this country. ~ Margaret H'Doubler

Over half the world menstruates at one time or another, but you'd never know it. Isn't that strange? ~ Margaret Cho

It is curious how fatal it is, either to a situation or to an individual, or even to a name, if in an evil moment it becomes funny. ~ Margaret Deland

Religions in general have to rediscover their roots. In Hinduism and the Koran, animals are described as equals. If you walk into a cathedral and look at the decorations of early Christianity, there are vines, animals, creatures and birds thriving all over the stonework. ~ Margaret Atwood

Margaret [Arlo] was once asked how she felt about her life over the past fifty years. The look in her eyes revealed that she understood the true question: How is it that you continued over fifty years to be as poor as you were at the beginning? ... 'I'm rich-poor,' she said. 'You see, I got my son. I got my Bible. That's all I need. I don't treasure nothin' on earth. ~ Dale Maharidge

Usually this desire [for family limitation] has been laid to economic pressure It has asserted itself among the rich and among the poor, among the intelligent and the unintelligent. It
has been manifested in such horrors as infanticide, child abandonment and abortion. ~ Margaret Sanger

Oh my god" Meg ranted. "Her water just broke!"
Margaret" Eve said, "get a grip - and a towel. I'll be there in five minutes."
(After her sister is off to the hospital and Meg comes close to hyperventalating)
Shouldn't we have called an ambulance or something?" Meg fretted.
Oh for heavens sakes," Eve replied. "You don't need an ambulance!"
Not for me, Mother for Sierra. ~ Linda Lael Miller

She was reading Francis Godwin's Man in the Moone--its man was borne into space in a carriage drawn by swans--when she heard the sound of wheels upon the gravel. Two boxes from Martin & Allestyre were set down on the drive. 'My modest closet plays,' she said. She nearly ran down the stairs--for the recovery of her wayward crates that spring and the preparation of her plays for publication had rekindled inside Margaret a flame she'd feared had gone out. ... But now, in turning the pages, she grew concerned and then incensed: 'reins' where she had written 'veins,' 'exterior' when she had clearly meant 'interior.' The sun went down. The room grew dim. ... 'Before the printer ruined it,' she cried, 'my book was good!'

'Could it be,' he asked, soaking his bread in {lamb's} blood, 'that you were yourself the cause of this misfortune? ~ Danielle Dutton

The Margaret Thatcher syndrome, that is, the woman who achieves seniority, but refuses any gender identification and indeed whose policies harmed many women, highlights that gender sensitivity is more significant in leading change than the biological sex of post-holders. ~ Louise Morley

The rest of us have monsters too, but we must call them by other names, or pretend they don't exist... ~ Margaret Millar

There is only so much manpower and tax revenue that can be devoted to riot control, to social surveillance, to chasing fast youths down dark alleyways, to fire-hosing and pepper-spraying suspicious-looking gatherings. ~ Margaret Atwood

Was I wilfully blind when I married Michael? Of course I was. I knew about his heart condition - everyone did. But I fell in love with him and decided it didn't matter. We were going to live for ever, somehow. Now I know that the fact that we had the same initials, were both expatriates, had gone to the same university, and were of medium build made the relationship highly determined. But I might have done the research and discovered his short life expectancy or talked to psychologists about the pain of grieving or read books about the sadness of widowhood. But I didn't do any of those things. I looked away from those sad certainties and pretended that they weren't there.
Love is blind, not, as in mythology, because Cupid's arrows are random but because, once struck by them, we are left blind. When we love someone, we see them as smarter, wittier, prettier, stronger than anyone else sees them. ~ Margaret Heffernan

Wishing for things could sometimes call them forth. Wishing to study could incite a desire to do so, stimulate an interest. Reading about a region could pique interest in it, make you want to travel there and experience it. But passion could not be piped forth, could not be lured from its den by any known device or trick. It seemed to have a stubborn, independent life of its own, slumbering when it would be convenient for it to dance, springing forth when there was no reason for it, nowhere for it to spend itself. ~ Margaret George

A 'why' is a dangerous thing ... It challenges old, comfortable ways, forces people to think about that they do instead of just mindlessly doing it. (Haplo)
...
I think the danger is not so much in asking the 'why' as in believing you have come up with the only answer. (Alfred) ~ Margaret Weis

So much better to travel than to arrive. ~ Margaret Atwood

Thus we use our supposed "knowledge" of others to speak on their behalf, and condemn them for their words we ourselves put in their silent mouths. ~ Margaret George

I had four brothers, no sisters, and shared a tiny bedroom with my maiden aunt for the first seventeen years of my life. I had no choice but to write. ~ Margaret Hermes

Time: old cold time, old sorrow, settling down in layers like silt in a pond. ~ Margaret Atwood

friendship was always contingent. ~ Margaret Atwood

Left-wing zealots have often been prepared to ride roughshod over due process and basic considerations of fairness when they think they can get away with it. For them the ends always seems to justify the means. That is precisely how their predecessors came to create the gulag. ~ Margaret Thatcher

An intelligent woman with allies can accomplish anything ~ Margaret Plant

The past is a closed door. ~ Margaret Atwood

I used to think about how alike we all are. The human race, those of us who survived. Then I thought, if the stories were true and there were other Icon Children - if I met any - we would understand each other perfectly, the way Ro and I so often do. ~ Margaret Stohl

I do not say making love, because this is not what he's doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven't signed up for. There wasn't a lot of choice, but there was some, and this is what I chose. ~ Margaret Atwood

Just as the difference in height between males is no longer a realistic issue, now that lawsuits have been substituted for hand-to-hand encounters, so the difference in strength between men and women is no longer worth elaboration in cultural institutions. ~ Margaret Mead

This is a woman who models herself on Margaret Thatcher, only without the warmth and compassion. ~ Charles Stross

Why do we desire, above all other things, that which has the greatest power to destroy us? ~ Margaret Rogerson

Every poor lady that came to me, that touched my hand, that drew a small part of my spirit from me to her - they were only shadows. Aurora, they were shadows of you! I was only seeking you out, as you were seeking me. You were seeking me, your own affinity. And if you let them keep me from you now, I think we shall die! ~ Sarah Waters

Falling in love, I said. Falling into it, we all did then, one way or another. How could we have made such light of it? Sneered even. As if it was trivial for us, a frill, whim. It was, on the contrary, heavy going. ~ Margaret Atwood

He was astonishingly vain even by fair folk standards, which was like saying a pond is unusually wet, or a bear surprisingly hairy. ~ Margaret Rogerson

I'd rather be at the end of a dying tradition, which I admire, than at the beginning of a tradition which I deplore. ~ Margaret Drabble

Choice of evils debates always produce extremism - people choose what they hope is the lesser evil, then call it good and demonize the other choice. It will be a challenge for your generation to synthesize - to move beyond Us versus Them, to We. ~ Margaret Atwood

Commander Judd is a great believer in the restorative powers of young women, as were King David and assorted Central American drug lords ~ Margaret Atwood

By some special graciousness of fate I am deposited - as all good photographers like to be - in the right place at the right time. Go into it as young as possible. Bring all the asset you have and play to win. ~ Margaret Bourke-White

We are survivors, of each other. We have been shark to one another, but also lifeboat. That counts for something. ~ Margaret Atwood