Top 250 Diana Wynne Jones Quotes (2026 Update)
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101. “They knew that if, as a child, you do pluck up the courage to hit a bully, it is an act of true heroism – as great as that of Beowulf in his old age.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

102. “Sophie did not care to think how Howl might react if Fanny woke him by stabbing him with her parasol.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

103. “I’m going to bed, where I may die.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

104. “SHE LIKES MY SPARK!!!! – Calcifer.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

105. “Some people are thoroughly self-centred. This thing goes with me. I need it for moral support.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

106. “Howl preferred Miss Angorian.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

107. “Sophie listened and felt sad. Interesting things did seem to happen, but always to somebody else.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

108. “It was Cesari’s most luscious cake, covered in cream and cherries and little curls of chocolate.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

109. “Sophie’s experience told her that tantrums are seldom about the thing they appear to be about.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

110. “I’m not being nosy!” Sophie protested. “That room – !” “Yes, you are nosy,” said Howl. “You’re a dreadfully nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman. Control yourself. You’re victimizing us all.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

111. “He lied about that. He didn’t want to annoy you. He’s a slitherer-outer, if you know what I mean, Your Majesty.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

112. “Tell me, do you sometimes find yourself unaccountably sad on some days?”

— Diana Wynne Jones

113. “She stood with her nose up, sniffing delightedly. It was the delicious mildewy fragrance of old books. Hundreds of them, she saw, looking round the room. Books were lined up on shelves on all four walls, stacked on the floor, and piled on the desk, old books in leather covers mostly, although some of the ones on the floor had newer looking colored jackets.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

114. “Mother knows you don’t have to be unkind to someone in order to exploit them.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

115. “Mr. Lynn gave her one of his considering looks. “People are strange,” he said. “Usually they’re much stranger than you think. Start from there and you’ll never be unpleasantly surprised. Do you fancy doughnuts?”

— Diana Wynne Jones

116. “Zip! Back to the mansion. Zip! to Market Square. Zip! and there was the castle yet again. She was getting the hang of it. Zip! Here was Upper Folding – but how did you stop? Zip! “Oh, confound it!” Sophie cried, almost in Marsh Folding again.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

117. “Go to bed, you fool,” Calcifer said sleepily. “You’re drunk.” “Who, me?” said Howl. “I assure you, my friends, I am cone sold stober.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

118. “Sophie looked up at him. As she had feared, the hard black-and-white daylight coming through the broken wall showed her that Howl had not bothered to shave or tidy his hair.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

119. “Howl’s very fickle,” said Calcifer. “He’s only interested until the girl falls in love with him. Then he can’t be bothered with her.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

120. “As often happened, Charmain began to despair of getting her mother to understand. She’s not stupid, she just never lets her mind out, she thought.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

121. “Apply your fiendish mind to the matter,” said Howl. “Or even think, if you know how.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

122. “The more I see of witchcraft, the more it seems just an easy way to be nasty.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

123. “And seeing clearly that his princesses would not be able to walk on air as we djinns do, he first ordered me to steal a certain moving castle belonging to a wizard in this land of Ingary in which to house his brides, and then he ordered me to commence stealing princesses.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

124. “So you eat them. And don’t try chucking them away. I’ll know. I empty the bins.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

125. “Don’t think I can’t see your point of view – you’re a young fellow, disappointed in love, impatient – naturally you think Fate’s against you. Take it from me, Fate doesn’t care either way most of the time.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

126. “He is real, in his own way,” Ann pointed out. “After all, what’s real? How do you know I’m real, or if you are?”

— Diana Wynne Jones

127. “My impression,” said the King, “was that Howl is an unprincipled, slippery rogue with a glib tongue and a clever mind. Would you agree?”

— Diana Wynne Jones

128. “That was Sophie’s trouble. She was remorseless, but she lacked method.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

129. “It was only when Shona, in sheer fury, turned the carnivorous sheep among them that they moved. They ran, some of them with charming little white sheep attached to their legs or backsides and the rest shouting about monsters.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

130. “You know the way they have mouths that don’t seem to smile in the same way as normal people’s.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

131. “In fact, I had time to be maddened by Christopher generally. He would keep calling me “Grant” in that superior way, and there were times when I wanted to hit him for it, or shout that it was only my alias, or – anyway he really annoyed me. Then he would say something that doubled me up with laughter and I discovered I liked him again. It was truly confusing.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

132. “You don’t give hired assassins supper, do you?” Quentin smiled. “No, but when a wolf follows your sleigh, you give it meat,” he.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

133. “He was standing holding the door to the stairs open with an arm that was entirely hidden inside an immense blue-and-silver sleeve. His feet, on the bottom stair, were standing inside the top half of a gigantic blue-and-silver jacket. Howl’s other arm did not come anywhere near the other huge sleeve. Sophie could see that arm in outline, making bulging gestures under a vast frill of collar. Behind Howl, the stairs were full of blue-and-silver suit trailing back all the way to his bedroom.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

134. “When you grow up to be an author and write books, you’ll think you’re making the books up, but they’ll all really be true, somewhere.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

135. “It’s like life,” Clennen said. “You may wonder what goes on inside, but what matters is the look of it and the kind of performance we give.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

136. “You cannot rob robbers with a kitten in your hat!”

— Diana Wynne Jones

137. “Derk was sick of falling backward into his trench, but he never had time to invent a different way of being killed.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

138. “I know Brian is nasty, but I had always thought it was his situation before this,′ Nirupam remarked... Charles could not answer at once, because he was not sure that a person’s character could be separate from his situation in quite this way.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

139. “Is something the matter?” Sophie sniffed. “I’m old.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

140. “The most she knew about gardens was the Bakers’ own backyard, which contained one large mulberry tree and a rosebush, plus the window boxes where her mother grew runner beans. She knew there was earth under the plants and that the earth contained worms. She shuddered.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

141. “In this world people are used to doing by magic what we do by science.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

142. “Oh, hello, Howl,” Michael said helplessly.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

143. “The job Chrestomanci has is to make sure this world isn’t run entirely by witches. Ordinary people have rights too.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

144. “What made me think I wanted life to be interesting?”

— Diana Wynne Jones

145. “Look at it! It’s ginger! I shall have to hide until it’s grown out! Despair! Anguish! Horror!”

— Diana Wynne Jones

146. “But what call has he to be walking around in a charmed suit? It is a dazzling attraction charm, directed at ladies – very well done, I admit, and barely detectable even to my trained eye, since it appears to have been darned into the seams – and one which will render him almost irresistible to ladies. This represents a downward trend into black arts which must surely cause you some motherly concern, Mrs. Pendragon.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

147. “I’ve been feeling rather bloodthirsty lately, and saving the world seemed a good way to use it.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

148. “Though he did not seem to want to leave the hills, he was known to amuse himself by collecting young girls and sucking the souls from them.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

149. “I shall die and then you’ll all be sorry.”

— Diana Wynne Jones

150. “Sophie nearly said the smell reminded her of the bathroom after Howl had been in it, but she bit it back.”

— Diana Wynne Jones