I have written, probably, more books for children than any other writer, from story-books to plays, and can claim to know more about interesting children than most.
I’m good at exploring roofs. You never know when that kind of thing comes in useful.
I get over a hundred letters a day from all over the world, from children and parents, and it’s a wonder I ever have time to write books, let alone speak!
It wasn’t a bit of good fighting grown-ups. They could do exactly as they liked.
Here Mr Potts come here you little idiot!
My work in books, films and talks lies almost wholly with children, and I have very little time to give to grown-ups.
Remorse is a terrible thing to bear, Pam, one of the worst of all punishments in this life. To wish undone something you have done, to wish you could look back on kindness to someone you love, instead of on unkindness – that is a very terrible thing.
We must have Christian ethics for our children, good and strong, but we must make them attractive, too, and it can be done.
I think people make their own faces, as they grow.
Oh, I wish I lived in a caravan!’ said Jimmy longingly. ‘How lovely it must be to live in a house that has wheels and can go away down the lanes and through the towns, and stand still in fields at night!
A clown needn’t be the same out of the ring as he has to be when he’s in it. If you look at photographs of clowns when they’re just being ordinary men, they’ve got quite sad faces.
I am not really much interested in talking to adults, although I suppose practically every mother in the kingdom knows my name and my books. It’s their children I love.
Writing for children is an art in itself, and a most interesting one.
When you’re paid to do a job, it’s better to give a few minutes more to it, than a few minutes less. That’s one of the differences between doing a job honestly and doing it dishonestly! See?
The point is not that I don’t recognise bad people when I see them – I grant you I may quite well be taken in by them – the point is that I know a good person when I see one.
There’s a rainbow around every corner is a well known saying and is supposed to make negative people positive.
You think if someone does a brave deed quite suddenly, then he or she could never do a mean one? You are wrong. We all have good and bad in us, and we have to strive all the time to make the good cancel out the bad. We can never be perfect – we all of us do mean or wrong things at times – but we can at least make amends by trying to cancel out the wrong by doing something worthy later on.
The train whistled, and chuffed out of the station. The children pressed their noses to the window and watched the dirty houses and the tall chimneys race by. How they hated the town! How lovely it would be to be in the clean country, with flowers growing everywhere, and birds singing in the hedges! Pg 5.
You may be a failure at the moment – but you’re a very fine failure, Darrell! You’re a lot better than some people who think they’re a success.
Adventures always come to the adventurous, there’s no doubt about that!