Quotes from Tove Jansson

Maybe my passion is nothing special, but at least it's mine. - An Eightieth Birthday

All things are so very uncertain, and that's exactly what makes me feel reassured.

You must go on a long journey before you can really find out how wonderful home is.

It's funny about love', Sophia said. 'The more you love someone, the less he likes you back.' 'That's very true,' Grandmother observed. 'And so what do you do?' 'You go on loving,' said Sophia threateningly. 'You love harder and harder.

A theatre is the most important sort of house in the world, because that's where people are shown what they could be if they wanted, and what they'd like to be if they dared to and what they really are

Lie on the bridge and watch the water flowing past. Or run, or wade through the swamp in your red boots. Or roll yourself up and listen to the rain falling on the roof. It's very easy to enjoy yourself.

There are such a lot of things that have no place in summer and autumn and spring. Everything that's a little shy and a little rum. Some kinds of night animals and people that don't fit in with others and that nobody really believes in. They keep out of the way all the year. And then when everything's quiet and white and the nights are long and most people are asleep—then they appear.

It was a particularly good evening to begin a book.

But that's how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now, I just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are always free, because I don't have to carry a suitcase.

Making a journey by night is more wonderful than anything in the world.

Someone who eats pancakes and jam can't be so awfully dangerous. You can talk to him.

I'll have to calm down a bit. Or else I'll burst with happiness

The hemulen woke up slowly and recognised himself and wished he had been someone he didn't know.

There's no need to imagine that you're a wondrous beauty, because that's what you are.

Quite, quite,' she thought with a little sigh. 'It's always like this in their adventures. To save and be saved. I wish somebody would write a story sometime about the people who warm up the heroes afterward.

It is still summer, but the summer is no longer alive. It has come to a standstill; nothing withers, and fall is not ready to begin. There are no stars yet, just darkness.

The thing about God, she thought, is that He usually does help, but not until you've made an effort on your own.

Smell is important. It reminds a person of all the things he's been through; it is a sheath of memories and security.

Most of the people are homesick anyway, and a little lonely, and they hide themselves in their hair and are turned into flowers.

It's funny about paths and rivers," he mused. "You see them go by, and suddenly you feel upset and want to be somewhere else--wherever the path or the river is going, perhaps.

On niitä jotka jäävät ja toisia jotka lähtevät, niin on ollut aina. Kukin saa valita itse, mutta on valittava ajoissa, eikä koskaan saa antaa periksi.

An island can be dreadful for someone from outside. Everything is complete, and everyone has his obstinate, sure and self-sufficient place. Within their shores, everything functions according to rituals that are as hard as rock from repetition, and at the same time they amble through their days as whimsically and casually as if the world ended at the horizon.

Gathering is peculiar, because you see nothing but what you're looking for. If you're picking raspberries, you see only what's red, and if you're looking for bones you see only the white. No matter where you go, the only thing you see is bones.

Making a whole is very important. Most people paint things and forget the whole.