Quotes from Lloyd Alexander

Eventually, I was sent to Wales and Germany, and after the war, to Paris.

It is harsh enough for each man to bear his own wound. But he who leads bears the wounds of all who follow him.

For the deeds of a man, not the words of a prophecy, are what shape his destiny.

The destinies of men are woven one with the other, and you can turn aside from them no more than you can turn aside from your own.

A crown is a pitiless master, harsher than the staff of a pig-keeper; while a staff bears up, a crown weighs down, beyond the strength of any man to wear it lightly.

This much have I learned: A man's life weighs more than glory, and a price paid in blood is a heavy reckoning.

I have never known courage to be judged by the length of a man's hair. Or, for the matter of that, whether he has any hair at all.

I, too, shall seek honor. But I shall seek it where I know it will be found.

The point is not to look back, but to look ahead to what you hope still to do.

At the end of knowledge, wisdom begins, and at the end of wisdom, there is not grief...but hope

If we nourish imagination, we nourish everything else.

Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.

Fantasy is, I believe, the great nourisher of imagination. To paraphrase Einstein on how to develop intelligence in young people: Read fairy tales. Then read more fairy tales.

I used the imaginary kingdom not as a sentimentalized fairyland but as an opening wedge to express what I hoped would be some very hard truths.

Talented people are finding that writing for young people is as demanding of high quality as writing for adults.

From as far back as I can remember, I always loved the King Arthur stories, fairy tales, mythology - things like that. So it was very natural for me when I came to write the 'Prydain' books to sort of follow that direction.

I never saw fairy tales as an escape or a cop-out... On the contrary, speaking for myself, it is the way to understand reality.

I decided that adventure was the best way to learn about writing.

I first wrote for adults, but when I started writing for young people, it was the most creative and liberating experience of my life. I was able to express my own deepest feelings far more than I ever could when writing for adults.

I'm impossible when a book is taking shape. Well, actually, I'm despicable.

Most of my books have been written in the form of fantasy.

There is more honor in a field well plowed than in a field steeped in blood.

Forgive me....I called you an idiot. I spoke too hastily. You are not. Had I given it more thought, I would have called you a scoundrel.

A shade of sorrow passed over Taliesin's face. 'There are those,' he said gently, 'who must first learn loss, despair, and grief. Of all paths to wisdom, this is the cruelest and longest. Are you one who must follow such a way? This even I cannot know. If you are, take heart nonetheless. Those who reach the end do more than gain wisdom. As rough wool becomes cloth, and crude clay a vessel, so do they change and fashion wisdom for others, and what they give back is greater than what they won.