Quotes from Susan Cooper

Any great gift or power or talent is a burden, and this more than any, and you will often long to be free of it. But there is nothing to be done. If you were born with the gift, then you must serve it, and nothing in this world or out of it may stand in the way of that service, because that is why you were born and that is the Law.

The future can not blame the present, just as the present cannot blame the past.

So the shortest day came, and the year died

The ears of an Old One know that birds do not speak with the precision of words; instead they communicate with emotion. There are many kinds and degrees of emotion, and there are many kinds of expression even in the language of a bird.

Jane clutched her mug like a talisman of reality; then suddenly jumped so hard that she spilt half the cocoa on the window-sill.

The surface of the iron was irregular, but though it showed no sign of having been polished it was completely smooth—smooth in a way that reminded him of a certain place in the rough stone floor of the kitchen, where all the roughness had been worn away by generations of feet turning to come round the corner from the door.

For this was Christmas, which had always been a time of magic, to him and to all the world.

Where did they go? Where the leaves go in autumn, Will said. Bran looked at him and seemed suddenly to relax; he grinned. There's poetic, now. Will laughed. It's true. Of course, the trouble with leaves is, they grow again...

Then very faintly, he heard above his head the low familiar murmur of the sea outside. At once the comfortable noise made him cheerful, and he even remembered what they were supposed to be.

Honest. I know. But all the same... woo! It was a head-back, beaming, yelping shout of joyful excitement, spontaneous and startling, and every face turned; their apprehensiveness faded for a moment, and even Merriman, stern for the first instant, laughed aloud. Yes! he said. We need that as much as the sword, Barney.

The three generous men of the Island of Britain. Nudd the Generous, son of Senllyt. Mordaf the Generous, son of Serwan. Rhydderch the Generous, son of Tydwal Tudglyd. And Arthur himself was more generous than the three.

Remember. Y maent yr mynyddoedd yn canu ac y mae'r arglwyddes yn dod. The mountains are singing, and the Lady comes. Remember.

Fear of having done the wrong thing—fear that having done this one great thing, he would never again be able to accomplish anything of great worth—fear of age, of insufficiency, of unmet promise. All such endless fears, that are the doom of people given the gift of making, and lie always somewhere in their minds.

In a way," Great –Uncle Merry said. His eyes seemed dazed, unable to focus anywhere, but there was a twitching at the corners of his mouth. Somehow, without smiling, he looked happier than they had ever seen him look before. Jane thought, watching: it is a sad face usually, and that's why there is such a difference.

Take her from this road,' he said in a clear, loud voice, and the blazing circle of light moved slowly to one side, forcing the girl Maggie to stumble with it, until it hovered on the rough ground next to the road.

Well, this is no talk for Christmas,' Miss Greythorne said, and waved them off. Glancing back at her, as she turned to Robin with a bright social smile, Will found himself wondering whether the two Miss Greythornes were not one after all.

The man was tall, and wore a dark cloak that fell straight like a robe; his hair, which grew low over his neck, shone with a curious reddish tinge.

He felt that they were still recovering from his fall themselves, treating him as a fragile piece of china which, since it had magically survived without breakage, should be set very carefully on a shelf and not moved for a special conciliatory length of time.

I dream endlessly, my minstrel,' he said. 'I live in my dreams - they are the only thing this emptiness has not touched. Oh sometimes they are black and dreadful, nightmares from the pit. ... But most of them are wonderful, full of happiness and lost joy, and delight in making and being. Without my dreams, I should have gone mad long ago.' 'Ah,' Gwion said wryly, 'that is true of many men in this world.

Open for sun, closed for rain, that's the poor man's weathervane.

For this was Christmas, which had always been a time of magic, to him and to all the world. This was a brightness, a shining festival, and while its enchantment was on the world the charmed circle of his family and home would be protected against any invasion from outside.

In America . . . the sense of man/s relationship with the land can be found only in the Southwest.

those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun.' Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. 'At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh

No child is wholly wrapped in the present who has grown up seeing a Norman castle from his or her bedroom window.