Top 250 Diana Wynne Jones Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “A heart’s a heavy burden.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

2. “A fickle heart is the only constant in this world.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

3. “I think we ought to live happily ever after.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

4. “My shining dishonesty will be the salvation of me.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

5. “To love someone enough to let them go, you had to let them go forever or you did not love them that much.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

6. “If I give you a hint and tell you it’s a hint, it will be information.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

7. “Yes, you are nosy. You’re a dreadfully nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman. Control yourself. You’re victimizing us all.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

8. “If you take myth and folklore, and these things that speak in symbols, they can be interpreted in so many ways that although the actual image is clear enough, the interpretation is infinitely blurred, a sort of enormous rainbow of every possible colour you could imagine.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

9. “Chrestomanci smiled and swept out of the room like a very long procession of one person.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

10. “You must admit I have a right to live in a pigsty if I want.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

11. “I assure you, my friends, I am cone sold stober.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

12. “You’ve no right to walk into people’s castles and take their guitars.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

13. “Writing for adults, you have to keep reminding them of what is going on. The poor things have given up using their brains when they read. Children you only need to tell things to once.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

14. “Only thin, weak thinkers despise fairy stories. Each one has a true, strange fact hidden in it, you know, which you can find if you look.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

15. “A library is a place full of mouth-watering food for thought.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

16. “Interesting things did seem to happen, but always to somebody else.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

17. “Being a hero means ignoring how silly you feel.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

18. “It does seem that a fantasy, working out in its own terms, stretching you beyond the normal concerns of your own life, gains you a peculiar charge of energy which inexplicably enriches you. At least, this is my ideal of a fantasy, and I am always trying to write it.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

19. “Do you mind not being so kind and obedient? It makes me nervous.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

20. “Hope is the forward-looking part of memory.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

21. “All these things that crib and cab in your brain, in your imagination, are in fact things that might well in later life drive you insane.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

22. “I am a believer in free will. If my dog chooses to hate the whole human race except myself, it must be free to do so.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

23. “Pray use both cats as sponges if it pleases you, infatuated infantryman.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

24. “Every man in Ingary is scared stiff of her. You ought to know how that feels, Sophie dear.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

25. “Christopher discovered that you dealt with obnoxious masters and most older boys the way you dealt with governesses: you quite politely told them the truth in the way they wanted to hear it, so that they thought they had won and left you in peace.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

26. “There is very seldom any true secret.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

27. “Sorry, I’ve had enough of running away, Sophie. Now I’ve got something I want to protect. It’s you.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

28. “Things are going round and round in my head – or maybe my head is going round and round in things.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

29. “She said ‘Over my dead body!’ so I took her at her word.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

30. “I’m going up to my room now, where I may die.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

31. “It is quite a risk to spank a wizard for getting hysterical about his hair.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

32. “Look. Survey. Inspect. My hair is ruined! I look like a pan of bacon and eggs!”

— Diana Wynne Jones

33. “Beauty isn’t made of sugar.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

34. “I mean one of the things about being alone is that you’ve no people to define yourself off, I mean, people are like all-round mirrors, because let’s face it, we don’t often see ourselves all round in a mirror anyway, do we.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

35. “I could cut a star out of paper and drop it.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

36. “She was remorseless, but she lacked method.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

37. “Happiness isn’t a thing. You can’t go out and get it like a cup of tea. It’s the way you feel about things.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

38. “Take it from me, Fate doesn’t care most of the time.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

39. “I hope your bacon burns.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

40. “What a strange family you are! Is your name Lettie too?”

— Diana Wynne Jones

41. “I can’t abide people who go soft over animals and then cheat every human they come across!”

— Diana Wynne Jones

42. “You go and find who you really are, and don’t let anyone stop you.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

43. “I’m dying of boredom,” Howl said pathetically. “Or maybe just dying.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

44. “In the land of Ingary where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of the three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

45. “And it’s a pity too that I’ve no right to open your letters. I hope you don’t get many, or my conscience will give me no peace.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

46. “It’s a lucky child that knows that they’re a genius, unaimed and all that.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

47. “Why did you pretend to run away? To deceive the Witch?” “Not likely!” Howl yelled. “I’m a coward. Only way I can do something this frightening is to tell myself I’m not doing it!”

— Diana Wynne Jones

48. “I’m beginning to think I’ve led a much too sheltered life.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

49. “A garden should be natural-seeming, with wild sections, including a large area of bluebells.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

50. “I do feel very strongly that this is one of the things which people need encouragement to sort out, because I have this very strong feeling that everybody is probably a genius at something, it’s just a question of finding this.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

Featured in: Strong Quotes