Quotes from Roald Dahl

GIANTS: THE FLESHLUMPEATER THE BONECRUNCHER THE MANHUGGER THE CHILDCHEWER THE MEATDRIPPER THE GIZZARDGULPER THE MAID MASHER THE BLOODBOTTLER THE BUTCHER BOY

University? Mr Wormwood shouted, bouncing up in his chair. Who wants to go to university, for heaven's sake! All they learn there is bad habits! That's not true, Miss Honey said. If you had a heart attack this minute and had to call a doctor, that doctor would be a university graduate. If you got sued for selling someone a rotten second-hand car, you'd have to get a lawyer and he'd be a university graduate, too. Do not despise clever people, Mr Wormwood.

The young man clasped his hands together tight on his lap, hugging himself with his elbows. It seemed as though suddenly he was feeling very cold.

El centro del universo coincide ahora con el lugar donde tú te encuentras.

Allí están, en tus cajones, junto a los petardos que te sobraron de Navidad y las canicas de cristal: tus libros.

Un libro cruje cuando lo abres, como una galleta, y los negros regueros de tinta, sobre el frágil papel, despiden un olor sutil y sabroso, semejante al de ciertas frutas livianas.

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

When I was 2, we moved into an imposing country mansion 8 miles west of Cardiff, Wales.

I was a fighter pilot, flying Hurricanes all round the Mediterranean. I flew in the Western Desert of Libya, in Greece, in Syria, in Iraq and in Egypt.

Did they preach one thing and practice another, these men of God?

Me don't go boom boom in no ones panties.

The reason I collect good ideas is because plots themselves are very difficult indeed to come by.

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install A lovely bookshelf on the wall. Then fill the shelves with lots of books.

Don't gobblefunk around with words.

If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

So Matilda's strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.

The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.

If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.

Matilda said, "Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable...

We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.

Grown ups are complicated creatures, full of quirks and secrets.

I understand what you're saying, and your comments are valuable, but I'm gonna ignore your advice.

A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it