Quotes from Robert Holdstock

Nothing has happened until it happens

you were both hunter and hunted; the shadow of your thoughts was the beast which killed you.

Pragmatism is nothing without imagination; and imagination is wasted without pragmatism

All things are known, Tallis, but most things are forgotten.

Bone always outlasts feather

A hundred years ago they'd have burned you as a witch… But I'm not a witch. I don't suppose any of them were.

I really didn't mean to steal it. Mr. Williams shook his head. He scratched at his chin nervously. Why not? That's what they're there for. Tunes belong to everybody. So do stories.

So are you telling me… he composed his thoughts. Are you telling me that if you told the last story again, and changed the young woman to a young man, then somewhere in history that same young woman would suddenly grow a beard? Tallis laughed at the image. I don't know, she said. I suppose so.

Have I told you about Christ? Ghost-born-man-walking-on-water-telling-stories-dead-on-tree.

Do you realize that a middle-class couple, one archaeologist, one dolls' expert, can't move from their house because ancient spirits are blocking them in? It's a reasonable sort of day's experience, isn't it?

All love is blind to reason, and maybe that's why some people are so strong.

Aseguraba que me sorprendería la encantadora muchacha por la que había perdido corazón, mente, alma, razón, talento para cocinar y casi todo lo demás.

On the whole, he seems to have used the notebook, and the quiet hours of recording, as a way of conversing with himself – a means of clarification of his own thoughts.

Menos de dos horas después de llegar, ya sabía que iba a quedarme. No porque me sintiera parte del lugar, aunque así era, sino porque aquel lugar me pertenecía. No en el sentido mercenario de la propiedad, sino porque la casa y sus alrededores habían compartido su vida conmigo.

Minden mese és dallam varázslatból születik

To each their own. Skills used unselfishly make for co-operation.

She can sniff it as she can sniff the pungency of the earth where it hides little treasures for the table; or the remains of the long-dead.

Out of our deepest memories come the forgotten forms of the past, given new life by the living sentience of an ancient and eternal forest.

All characters are based on elements of a writer's personal experience.