Random quotes from books by Charles de Lint
Because I feel horrible and there is pain everywhere I can barely think, here are some lovely things that Charles de Lint characters have said over the years.
"There's nothing wrong with a youthful prospective. Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell."
― Charles de Lint, The Blue Girl
There are no happy endings... There are no endings, happy or otherwise. We all have our own stories which are just part of the one Story that binds both this world and Faerie. Sometimes we step into each others stories - perhaps just for a few minutes, perhaps for years - and then we step out of them again. But all the while, the Story just goes on."
― Charles de Lint, Dreams Underfoot
"Look inside yourself for the answers - you're the only one who knows what's best for you. Everybody else is only guessing."
― Charles de Lint, Trader
"Magic's never what you expect it to be, but it's often what you need."
― Charles de Lint, Moonlight and Vines
"I love this world," he added. "That is what rules my life. When I die, I want to have done all in my power to leave it in a better state than it was when I found it. At the same time I know that this can never be. The world has grown so complex that one voice can do little to alter it any longer. That doesn't stop me from doing what I can, but it makes the task hard. The successes are so small, the failures so large and many. It's like trying to stem a storm with one's bare hands."
― Charles de Lint, The Little Country
"As the new work fills my notebooks, I've come to realize that the characters in my stories were so real because I really did want to get close to people, I really did want to know them. It was just easier to do it on paper, one step removed."
― Charles de Lint, Dreams Underfoot
"Not only do we all have magic, it's all around us as well. We just don't pay attention to it. Every time we make something out of nothing, that's an act of magic. It doesn't matter if it's a painting or a garden, or an abuelo telling his grandchildren some tall tale. Every time we fix something that's broken, whether it's a car engine or a broken heart, that's an act of magic.
And what makes it magic is that we *choose* to create or help, just as we can choose to harm. But it's so easy to destroy and so much harder to make things better. That's why doing the right thing makes you stronger.
If we can only remember what we are and what we can do, nobody can bind us or control us."
― Charles de Lint, The Mystery of Grace
"Let me give you some advice: Try to approach things without preconceived ideas, without supposing you already know everything there is to know about them. Get that trick down and you'll be surprised at what's really all around you."
― Charles de Lint, Someplace to Be Flying
"The thing to remember when you're writing," he said, " is, it's not whether or not what you put on paper is true. It's whether it wakes a truth in your reader. I don't care what literary device you might use, or belief systems you tap into--if you can make a story true for the reader, if you can give them a glimpse into another way of seeing the world, or another way that they can cope with their problems, then that story is a succes."
― Charles de Lint, The Blue Girl
"There are as many stories to be told as there are people to tell them about; only the mean-spirited would consider there to be a competition at all."
― Charles de Lint, Dreams Underfoot
"Have you ever noticed how everyone says they want to be different, but as soon as they meet someone who really is different, they ostracize them?"
― Charles de Lint, The Blue Girl
"There's more to life than just surviving... but... sometimes just surviving is all you get"
― Charles de Lint, The Onion Girl
"There's nothing wrong with a youthful prospective. Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell."
― Charles de Lint, The Blue Girl
There are no happy endings... There are no endings, happy or otherwise. We all have our own stories which are just part of the one Story that binds both this world and Faerie. Sometimes we step into each others stories - perhaps just for a few minutes, perhaps for years - and then we step out of them again. But all the while, the Story just goes on."
― Charles de Lint, Dreams Underfoot
"Look inside yourself for the answers - you're the only one who knows what's best for you. Everybody else is only guessing."
― Charles de Lint, Trader
"Magic's never what you expect it to be, but it's often what you need."
― Charles de Lint, Moonlight and Vines
"I love this world," he added. "That is what rules my life. When I die, I want to have done all in my power to leave it in a better state than it was when I found it. At the same time I know that this can never be. The world has grown so complex that one voice can do little to alter it any longer. That doesn't stop me from doing what I can, but it makes the task hard. The successes are so small, the failures so large and many. It's like trying to stem a storm with one's bare hands."
― Charles de Lint, The Little Country
"As the new work fills my notebooks, I've come to realize that the characters in my stories were so real because I really did want to get close to people, I really did want to know them. It was just easier to do it on paper, one step removed."
― Charles de Lint, Dreams Underfoot
"Not only do we all have magic, it's all around us as well. We just don't pay attention to it. Every time we make something out of nothing, that's an act of magic. It doesn't matter if it's a painting or a garden, or an abuelo telling his grandchildren some tall tale. Every time we fix something that's broken, whether it's a car engine or a broken heart, that's an act of magic.
And what makes it magic is that we *choose* to create or help, just as we can choose to harm. But it's so easy to destroy and so much harder to make things better. That's why doing the right thing makes you stronger.
If we can only remember what we are and what we can do, nobody can bind us or control us."
― Charles de Lint, The Mystery of Grace
"Let me give you some advice: Try to approach things without preconceived ideas, without supposing you already know everything there is to know about them. Get that trick down and you'll be surprised at what's really all around you."
― Charles de Lint, Someplace to Be Flying
"The thing to remember when you're writing," he said, " is, it's not whether or not what you put on paper is true. It's whether it wakes a truth in your reader. I don't care what literary device you might use, or belief systems you tap into--if you can make a story true for the reader, if you can give them a glimpse into another way of seeing the world, or another way that they can cope with their problems, then that story is a succes."
― Charles de Lint, The Blue Girl
"There are as many stories to be told as there are people to tell them about; only the mean-spirited would consider there to be a competition at all."
― Charles de Lint, Dreams Underfoot
"Have you ever noticed how everyone says they want to be different, but as soon as they meet someone who really is different, they ostracize them?"
― Charles de Lint, The Blue Girl
"There's more to life than just surviving... but... sometimes just surviving is all you get"
― Charles de Lint, The Onion Girl