Tove Jansson Quotes

It's funny about love, the more you love someone, the less he likes you back.
And so, what do you do?
You go on loving, you love harder and harder. ~ Tove Jansson

The hemulen woke up slowly and recognised himself and wished he had been someone he didn't know. ~ Tove Jansson

Is that they come up with so many ideas and then they manage to carry them out and believe so strongly in what they do. ~ Tove Jansson

Moominmamma had got up very early to pack their rucksacks, and was bustling to and fro with wooly stockings and packets of sandwiches, while down by the bridge Moominpappa was getting their raft in order.
"Mamma, dar," said Moomintroll, "we can't possibly take all that with us. Everyone will laugh."
"It's cold in the Lonely Mountains," said Moominmamma, stuffing in an umbrella and a frying pan. "Have you got a compass?"
"Yes," answered Moomintroll, "but couldn't you at least leave out the plates
we can easily eat off rhubarb leaves. ~ Tove Jansson

Explosion is a beautiful word an a very big one. Later I learned others, the kind you can whisper only when you're alone. Inexorable. Ornamentation. Profile. Catastrophic. Electrical. District Nurse.
They get bigger and bigger if you say them over and over again. You whisper and whisper and let the word grow untilnothing exists except the word. ~ Tove Jansson

You sentimentalise them because they're little," she said. "But the format doesn't matter. I have gradually learned that everyone, absolutely everyone of every size, is out to get something. People want things. It comes to them naturally. Of course they get more skilful with age, and they're no longer so disarmingly obvious, but the goal doesn't change. Your children simply haven't had time to learn how it's done. That's what we call innocence. ~ Tove Jansson

Gathering is peculiar, because you see nothing but what you're looking for. If you're picking raspberries, you see only what's red, and if you're looking for bones you see only the white. No matter where you go, the only thing you see is bones. ~ Tove Jansson

Everything's much too big here,' thought Moominmamma. 'Or perhaps I'm too small. ~ Tove Jansson

Nothing can be as peaceful and endless as a long winter darkness, going on and on, like living in a tunnel where the dark sometimes deepens into night and sometimes eases to twilight, you're screened from everything, protected, even more alone than usual. ~ Tove Jansson

Pearls' burst out the Snork Maiden excitedly. 'Could ankle rings be made out of pearls?'
'I should think they could,' said Moomintoll. 'Ankle-rings, and nose-rings and ear-rings and engagement rings ... ~ Tove Jansson

Is it true you were born i the eighteen-hundreds?" Sophia yelled through the window.
"What of it?" Grandmother answered, very distinctly.
"What do you know about the eighteen-hundreds?"
"Nothing, and i'm not interested, either," Sophia shouted and ran away. ~ Tove Jansson

Moomintroll's mother and father always welcomed all their friends in the same quiet way, just adding another bed and putting another leaf in the dining-room table. And so Moominhouse was rather full
a place where everyone did what they liked and seldom worried about tomorrow. Very often unexpected and disturbing things used to happen, but nobody ever had time to be bored, and that is always a good thing. ~ Tove Jansson

One by one, the snowflakes floated down on to his warm snout, and melted. He reached out to grab them so he could admire them for a fleeting moment. He looked towards the sky and watched them drift down towards him, more and more, soft and light as a feather. 'So that's how it works,' thought Moomintroll. 'And I thought somehow that the snow grew from the ground up! ~ Tove Jansson, Moominland Midwinter

I want to go swimming," the child said. She waited for opposition, but none came. So she took off her clothes, slowly and nervously. She glanced at her grandmother -- you can't depend on people who just let things happen. She put her legs in the water.
"It's cold," she said.
"Of course it's cold," the old woman said, her thoughts somewhere else. "What did you expect? ~ Jansson, Tove

Life is an isle of sorrow, you live today and die tomorrow! ~ Tove Jansson

I want your first trip to be with me. I want to show you cities and landscapes and teach you how to look at things in new ways and how to get along in places you don't already know inside out. I want to put some life in you ... ~ Tove Jansson

It was the end of August - the time when owls hoot at night and flurries of bats swoop noiselessly over the garden. Moomin Wood was full of glow-worms, and the sea was disturbed. There was expectation and a certain sadness in the air, and the harvest moon came up huge and yellow. Moomintroll had always liked those last weeks of summer most, but he didn't really know why. ~ Tove Jansson

Fancy that! What fun! Coming all this way just to see me!"
"Well
we didn't exactly," began Moomintroll, clambering ashore.
"Never mind!" answered Snufkin. "The main thing is that you're here. You'll stay the night, won't you?"
"We should love to," said Moomintroll. "We haven't seen a soul since we left home, and that was ages ago. Why in the world do you live here in this desert?"
"I'm a tramp, and I live all over the place," answered Snufkin. "I wander about, and when I find a place that I like I put up my tent and play my mouth-organ. ~ Tove Jansson

... "But on an occasion like this we must wait for sunset. Setting out in the right way is just as important as the opening lines in a book: they determine everything." He sat in the sand next to Moominmamma. "Look at the boat," he said. "Look at The Adventure. A boat by night is a wonderful sight. This is the way to start a new life, with a hurricane lamp shining at the top of the mast, and the coastline disappearing behind one as the whole world lies sleeping. Making a journey by night is more wonderful than anything in the world."
"Yes, you're right," replied Moominmamma. "One makes a trip by day, but by night one sets out on a journey. ~ Tove Jansson

Of course, Moomintrolls don't wear clothes, except sometimes in bed. ~ Tove Jansson

Oh, dear me!" he lamented. "The raft has floated off and I suppose it's gone down that awful hole by now."
"Well, never mind. We're not on it," said Snufkin gaily. "What's a kettle here or there when you're out looking for a comet! ~ Tove Jansson

I don't want friends who are kind without really liking me and I don't want anybody who is kind just so as not to be unpleasant. ~ Tove Jansson

Making a whole is very important. Most people paint things and forget the whole. ~ Tove Jansson

You can't always be friendly. It's impossible, there isn't the time. ~ Tove Jansson

When the kite was finished, it refused to fly and kept slamming into the ground as if it wanted to destroy itself, and finally it threw itself in the march. Sophia put it outside Grandmother's door and went away. ~ Tove Jansson

Who's he going to outwit?" Sophia asked.
"Relatives." Grandmother said. "Nasty relatives. They tell him what to do without asking him what he wants, and so there's nothing at all he really does want. ~ Tove Jansson

Christmas always rustled. It rustled every time, mysteriously, with silver and gold paper, tissue paper and a rich abundance of shiny paper, decorating and hiding everything and giving a feeling of reckless extravagance. ~ Tove Jansson

Whatever are Snorks?"
"Don't you really know what a Snork is?" said Snufkin in amazement. "They must be the same family as you, I should think, because they look the same, except that they aren't often white. They can be any color in the world (like an Easter egg), and they change color when they get upset."
Moomintroll looked quite angry. "Well!" he said. "I've never heard of that branch of the family. A real Moomintroll is always white. Changing color indeed! What an idea! ~ Tove Jansson

Hattifatteners," Hodgkins said. "Electrical sailing."
"Hattifatteners," I whispered excitedly. "Traveling and traveling and never getting there ... "
"Thunderstorms charge them," Hodgkins said. "Sting like nettles."
"And they live a wicked life," the Joxter informed.
"A wicked life?" I repeated with interest. "How?"
"I don't quite know," said the Joxter. "Trampling down people's gardens and drinking beer, and so on, I suppose."
We sat there for a long time looking after the Hattifatteners sailing out toward the horizon. I felt a strange desire to join them on their voyage and share their wicked life. But I didn't say it. ~ Tove Jansson

Moominmamma scooped up a handful of snow and made a snowball. She threw it clumsily as mothers do, and it plopped to the ground not very far away.
'I'm no good at that,' said Moominmamma with a laugh. 'Even Sorry-oo would have made a better throw.'
'Mother, I love you terribly,' said Moomintroll. ~ Tove Jansson

It seemed to her the window was a great eye looking out over the city and the harbour and a strip of the gulf under ice. The new silence and emptiness was not entirely a loss; it was something of a relief. Aunt Gerda felt like a balloon, untied, soaring off its own way. But, she thought, it's a balloon that's bouncing against the ceiling and can't get free.
She understood that this was no way to live; human beings are not built to float. She needed an earthly anchor of meaning and care so she didn't get lost in the confusion. ~ Tove Jansson

For if you're not afraid how can you really be brave? ~ Tove Jansson

Strangely enough it was the most timid of them all, Salome the Little Creep, who really liked the Hemulen. She longed to hear him play the horn. But alas! The Hemulen was so big and always in such a hurry that he never noticed her.
No matter how fast she ran he always left her far behind, on his skis, and when she at last overtook the music, it ceased, and the Hemulen began doing something else.
A couple of times Salome the Little Creep tried to explain how much she admired him. But she was far too shy and ceremonious, and the Hemulen never had been a good listener.
So nothing of any consequence was said. ~ Tove Jansson

Only farmers and summer guests walk on the moss. What they don't know - and it cannot be repeated too often - is that moss is terribly frail. Step on it once and it rises the next time it rains. The second time, it doesn't rise back up. And the third time you step on moss, it dies. ~ Tove Jansson

You're too small to be told everything. ~ Tove Jansson

Really good films don't diminish anything, they don't close things off. On the contrary, they open up new insights, they make new thoughts thinkable. They crowd us, they deflate our slovenly lifestyle, our thoughtless way of chattering and pissing away our time and energy and passion. Believe me, films can teach us a huge amount. And they give us a true picture of the way life is."
Mari laughed. "Of our slovenly lifestyle, you mean? You mean, maybe they teach us to piss our lives away with a little more intelligence, a little more elegance? ~ Tove Jansson

Here is the most valuable thing in the whole of Moomin Valley, Groke! Do you know what has grown out of this hat? Raspberry juice and fruit trees, and the most beautiful little self-propelling clouds: the only Hobgoblin's Hat in the world! ~ Tove Jansson

A person can find anything if he takes the time, that is, if he can afford to look. And while he's looking, he's free, and he finds things he never expected. ~ Tove Jansson

It's finished. There isn't a stamp, or an error that I haven't collected. Not one. What shall I do now?"
"I think I'm beginning to understand," said Moomintroll slowly. "You aren't a collector anymore, you're only an owner, and that isn't nearly so much fun. ~ Tove Jansson

We must go home!", said the Snork.
"Not yet!" begged the Snork Maiden. "We haven't had the time to explore the cliff on the other side properly! We haven't even bathed!"
"We can wait a little and see what happens, can't we?" said Moomintroll. "It would be such a pity to go home just when we've discovered this island!"
"But if there's a storm we shan't be able to go at all!" said the Snork, brightly.
"That would be wonderful!" burst out Sniff. "We could stay here for ever and ever."
"Quiet children, I must think," said Moominpappa. He went down to the beach and sniffed the air, turned his head in all directions and wrinkled his forehead. ~ Tove Jansson

It's nice to have beautiful things that really belong to you. ~ Tove Jansson

Sophia and Grandmother sat down by the shore to discuss the matter further. It was a pretty day, and the sea was running a long, windless swell. It was on days just like this
dog days
that boats went sailing off all by themselves. Large, alien objects made their way in from sea, certain things sank and others rose, milk soured, and dragonflies danced in desperation. Lizards were not afraid. When the moon came up, red spiders mated on uninhabited skerries, where the rock became an unbroken carpet of tiny, ecstatic spiders. ~ Tove Jansson

It'd be awful if the world exploded, it's so wonderfully splendid ~ Tove Jansson

The quiet transition from autumn to winter is not a bad time at all. It's a time for protecting and securing things and for making sure you've got in as many supplies as you can. It's nice to gather together everything you possess as close to you as possible, to store up your warmth and your thoughts and burrow yourself into a deep hole inside, a core of safety where you can defend what is important and precious and your very own. Then the cold and the storms and the darkness can do their worst. They can grope their way up the walls looking for a way in, but they won't find one, everything is shut, and you sit inside, laughing in your warmth and your solitude, for you have had foresight. ~ Tove Jansson

The Hemulen, moaning piteously, thrust his nose into the sand. "This has gone too far!" he said. "Why can't a poor innocent botanist live his life in peace and quiet?"
"Life is not peaceful," said Snufkin, contentedly. ~ Tove Jansson

It is simply this: do not tire, never lose interest, never grow indifferent - lose your invaluable curiosity and you let yourself die. It's as simple as that. ~ Tove Jansson

Well,' said Hodgkins, 'perhaps he really is interested in everything, only he doesn't overdo it. For ourselves there is always one single interest. You want to become. I want to do. My nephew wants to have. But the Joxter just lives.'
'Simply lives,' I said. 'Anybody can do that.'
'Mphm,' Hodgkins said. ~ Tove Jansson

I thought it was another avalanche. This morning it was terrible."
"What was?" asked Sniff.
"The avalanche, of course," answered the Hemulen. "Quite terrible! Rocks the size of houses bouncing about like hail-stones! My best glass jar was broken, and I myself had to move quite quickly to get out of the way."
"I'm afraid we happened to knock a few stones down as we were passing," said Snufkin. "It's so easily done walking on these tracks."
"Do you mean to say it was you who made the avalanche?" said the Hemulen.
"Well
yes
sort of," Snufkin answered.
"I never thought very much of you," said the Hemulen slowly, "and now I think even less. ~ Tove Jansson

No well-bred person goes ashore on someone else's island when there's no one home. But if they put up a sign, then you do it anyway, because it's a slap in the face ~ Tove Jansson

She put on a white dress and went around all day with roses in her hair and sang hymns. ~ Tove Jansson

The star we're looking for isn't so very friendly," said Moomintroll. "Quite the contrary, in fact."
"What did you say?" said Sniff.
Moomintroll went a bit red. "I mean
stars in general," he said, "big and small, friendly and unfriendly, and so on."
"Can they be unfriendly?" asked Snufkin.
"Yes
ones with tails," answered Moomintroll. "Comets."
At last it dawned on Sniff. "You're hiding something from me!" he said accusingly. "That pattern we saw everywhere, and you said it didn't mean anything!"
"You're too small to be told everything," answered Moomintroll.
"Too small!" screamed Sniff. "I must say it's a fine thing to take me on an expedition of discovery and not tell me what I'm supposed to be discovering! ~ Tove Jansson

If words lie face down there's a chance they might change during the night; you may suddenly come to see them with a new eye, perhaps with a rapid flash of insight. It is conceivable. ~ Tove Jansson

They retained their wooden souls, and the curve of their backs had the enigmatic shape of growth itself and remained a part of the decaying forest ~ Tove Jansson

Malander had an idea and was trying to work it out, but it would take him time. Sometimes people never saw things clearly until it was too late and they no longer had the strength to start again. Or else they forgot their idea along the way and didn't even realise that they forgotten. ~ Tove Jansson

It's funny about me,' Sophia said. 'I always feel like such a nice girl whenever there's a storm.'
"'You do?' Grandmother said. 'Well, maybe ...' Nice, she thought. No. I'm certainly not nice. The best you could say of me is that I'm interested. [pp. 150-151] ~ Tove Jansson

Everyone must imagine his own snakes because no one else's snakes can ever be as awful. ~ Tove Jansson

The Muskrat was still lying in his hammock and thinking.
"Good afternoon, Uncle Muskrat!" said Moomintroll. "Do you know that things have begun to happen?"
"Nothing new in any case," said the Muskrat.
"Oh, yes," said Moomintroll. "Completely new. There are people in the forest making secret signs everywhere
threats or warnings or something. When the silk-monkey and I came home a little while ago, somebody had arranged mamma's jam pears in a pattern that looked like a star with a tail. ~ Tove Jansson

Listen," said the Hemulen. "I was born bald on top and really I get along very well. ~ Tove Jansson

That there can still be as-yet untranslated fiction by [Tove] Jansson is simultaneously an aberration and a delight, like finding buried treasure. ~ Ali Smith

Sometimes people are very predictable: they want a kitten in June, for example, and come the first of September they want someone to drown their cat. So someone does. But other times, people have dreams and things they want they can keep. Eriksson was the man who fulfilled these dreams. No one knew exactly what he found for himself along the way - probably a lot less than people thought. But he went on doing it anyway, perhaps for the sake of the search. ~ Tove Jansson

Isn't it fun when one's friends get exactly what suits them? ~ Tove Jansson

Before we left, Grandmother talked a lot about the arctic night we would fly through. 'Isn't it a mystical word, "arctic"? Pure and quite hard. And meridians. Isn't that pretty? We're going to fly along them, faster than the light can follow us ... Time won't be able to catch us. ~ Tove Jansson

But he thought all the strange words were beautiful, and he had never had a book of his own before. ~ Tove Jansson

I'll wind all the clocks,' he thought. 'Perhaps that makes the spring come a tiny bit earlier. And someone might wake up if I happen to break some big thing. ~ Tove Jansson

Robes, dresses, frocks. They hung in endless rows, in hundreds, one beside the other all around the room - gleaming brocade, fluffy clouds of tulle and swansdown, flowery silk, night-black velvet with glittering spangles everywhere like small, many-coloured blinker beacons. ~ Tove Jansson

She was tired and in no mood for anyone's similes but her own. ~ Tove Jansson

Such things happen," said Too-ticky ~ Tove Jansson

There's no need to imagine that you're a wondrous beauty, because that's what you are. ~ Tove Jansson

Are you too frightened to go any farther?" asked the silk-monkey, who found all this very easy, having four legs herself.
"I'm never afraid," answered Sniff. "But I think the view is better from here. ~ Tove Jansson

One summer morning at sunrise a long time ago
I met a little girl with a book under her arm.
I asked her why she was out so early and
she answered that there were too many books and
far too little time. And there she was absolutely right. ~ Tove Jansson

Grandmother had had to be frugal all her life, and so she had a weakness for extravagance. She watched the basin and the barrels and every crevice in the granite fill with water and overflow. She looked at the mattresses out being aired and the dishes that were washing themselves. She sighed contentedly, and, absorbed in thought, she filled a coffee cup with precious drinking water and poured it over a daisy. ~ Tove Jansson

A contract," Katri went on earnestly. "A contract is really much more remarkable than you might think. It doesn't just bind. I've noticed that for some people it's a relief to live with a contract. It frees them from indecision and confusion, they no longer have to choose. Both sides have agreed to share and assume responsibilities. It is, or ought to be, a deliberate promise where people have at least tried to be fair. ~ Tove Jansson

One can't be too dangerous, if they like to eat pancakes. Especially with jam on it. ~ Tove Jansson

Sometimes people never saw things clearly until it was too late and they no longer had the strength to start again. Or else they forgot their idea along the way and didn't even realize that they had forgotten ~ Tove Jansson

Tell them it's a secret. Tell them they don't need to know. ~ Tove Jansson

The world's asleep,' Moomintroll thought. 'It's only I who am awake and sleepless. It's only I who have to wander and wander, day after day and week upon week, until I too become a snowdrift that no one will even know about. ~ Tove Jansson

Well, things can't get much worse
that's one consolation, the Muskrat groaned. He had hidden himself in a forest of bracken in the bathroom, and had wrapped his head in a handkerchief so that nothing should grow into his ears. ~ Tove Jansson

One must use the night. ~ Tove Jansson

There are empty spaces that must be respected – those often long periods when a person can't see the pictures or find the words and needs to be left alone. ~ Tove Jansson

Smell is important. It reminds a person of all the things he's been through; it is a sheath of memories and security. ~ Tove Jansson

The Snork Maiden looked around her. Then she leaned forward and whispered in the Fillyjonk's outstretched ear: "First you must turn seven times around yourself, mumbling a little and stamping your feet. Then you go backward to a well, and turn around, and look down in it. And then, down in the water, you'll see the person you're going to marry!" "And how do you get him up from there?" asked the Fillyjonk excitedly. ~ Tove Jansson

But I was held down to earth by being constantly reminded that the world expects much of the gifted and that having talent is never an excuse for not using it. ~ Tove Jansson

It's strange," Moominmamma thought. "Strange that people can be sad, and even angry because life is too easy. But that's the way it is, I suppose. The only thing to do is to start life afresh. ~ Tove Jansson

I mean, anyone can let Danger out but the really clever thing is finding somewhere for it to go afterwards. ~ Tove Jansson

Small animals are a great problem. I wish God had never created small animals, or else that He had made them so they could talk, or else that He'd given them better faces. Space. Take moths. They fly at the lamp and burn themsleves, and then they fly right back again. It can't be instinct, because it isn't the way it works. They just don't understand, so they go right on doing it. Then they lie on their backs and all their legs quiver, and then they're dead. Did you get all that? Does it sound good?"
"Very good," Grandmother said.
Sophia stood up and shouted, "Say this: say I hate everything that dies slow! Say I hate everything that won't let you help! Did you write that? ~ Tove Jansson

Where's your home, then?" asked the Snork Maiden.
"Nowhere" said Snufkin a little sadly, "or everywhere. It depends on how you look at it."
"Haven't you got a mother?" asked Moomintroll, looking very sorry for him.
"I don't know," said Snufkin. "They tell me I was found in a basket."
"Like Moses," said Sniff.
"I like the story about Moses," said the Snork. "But I think his mother could have found a better way of saving him, don't you? The crocodiles might have eaten him up."
"They nearly ate us up," said Sniff. ~ Tove Jansson

It's funny about paths and rivers," he mused. "You see them go by, and suddenly you feel upset and want to be somewhere else--wherever the path or the river is going, perhaps. ~ Tove Jansson

Now everything was changed. She walked about with cautious, anxious steps, staring constantly at the ground, on the lookout for things that crept and crawled. Bushes were dangerous, and so were sea grass and rain water. There were little animals everywhere. They could turn up between the covers of a book, flattened and dead, for the fact is that creeping animals, tattered animals, and dead animals are with us all our lives, from beginning to end. Grandmother tried to discuss this with her, to no avail. Irrational terror is so hard to deal with. [p. 136] ~ Tove Jansson

You're an idiot," Snufkin said. "Or still worse, you're a story spoiler. ~ Tove Jansson

He read the classics, the French and the German among others, but primarily the Russian, which enchanted him with their heavy patience. ~ Tove Jansson

I can work anywhere," said the Muskrat. "It's all a matter of thinking. I sit and think about how unnecessary everything is."
"Really?" said Moominpappa, much impressed. "Perhaps I might offer you a glass of wine? Against the cold?"
"Wine, I am bound to say, is unnecessary," replied the Muskrat, "but a small drop nevertheless would not be unwelcome. ~ Tove Jansson

As they pushed through the door a remarkable sight met their eyes: the Muskrat was sitting in the fork of a tree eating a pear.
"Where's mother?" asked Moomintroll.
"She's trying to get your father out of his room," replied the Muskrat, bitterly. "This is what comes of collecting plants. I've never quite trusted that Hemulen. Well, I hope the Muskrat heaven is a peaceful place, because I shan't be here much longer. ~ Tove Jansson

Irrational terror is so hard to deal with. ~ Tove Jansson

A new door to the Unbelievable, to the Possible, a new day that can always bring you anything if you have no objection to it. ~ Tove Jansson

When Mats came in the evenings, they would drink tea in the kitchen while reading their books and talking about them. If Katri came in, they were quiet and waited for her to leave. The back door would close, and Katri would have gone.
"Does your sister read our books?" Anna wanted to know.
"No. She reads literature. ~ Tove Jansson

Anyway, solitary people interest me. There are so many different ways of being solitary.'
'I know just what you mean,' said X. 'I know exactly what you're going to say. Different kinds of solitude. Enforced solitude and voluntary solitude.'
'Quite,' said Viktoria. 'There's no need to go into it further. But when people understand one another without speaking, it can often leave them with very little to talk about, don't you think? ~ Tove Jansson

Sometimes it's better to look at things than own them ... owning means anxiety and lots of bags to carry around. ~ Tove Jansson

Lie on the bridge and watch the water flowing past. Or run, or wade through the swamp in your red boots. Or roll yourself up and listen to the rain falling on the roof. It's very easy to enjoy yourself. ~ Tove Jansson

It was simply that she was only fully alive when she devoted herself to her singular ability to draw, and when she drew she was naturally always alone. ~ Tove Jansson

He did not confuse what he longed for with his gratitude for what he had. Extreme desires have their own sanctuary. ~ Tove Jansson