Quotes from Richard Adams

He was after a sensational story and this, of course, could not be constructed out of mere truth; not out of officially released truth, anyway. It was essential that the news-reading public should feel, first, that the community was in danger and secondly that people—well-off people, "official" people—who ought to have known better, were to blame for it.

Oh, Frith help me!" said Fiver, trembling. "I can smell him from here. He terrifies me." "Oh, Fiver, don't be absurd! He just smells the same as the rest of them." "He smells like barley rained down and left to rot in the fields. He smells like a wounded mole that can't get underground." "He smells like a big, fat rabbit to me, with a lot of carrots inside. But I'll come with you.

Bigwig, as he had predicted, was getting his head bitten off.

Like children in a dark room, like wayfarers passing a graveyard at night, the four men in the canoe filled the surrounding darkness with the fear from their own hearts.

Bargains, bargains, El-ahrairah, he said. There is not a day or night but a doe offers her life for her kittens, or some honest captain of Owsla his life for his Chief Rabbit's. Sometimes it is taken, sometimes it is not. But there is no bargain, for here what is is what must be.

How do they find out with the experiments?' '...one way they can find out a whole lot is to make an animal ill and then try different ways to make it better until they find one that works.' 'But isn't that unkind to the animal?' 'Well, I suppose it is...but I mean, there isn't a dad anywhere who would hesitate, is there, if he knew it was going to make [his child] better? It's changed the whole world during the last hundred years, and that's no exaggeration.

Are you angry, El-ahrairah?' asked Lord Frith. "'No, my lord,' replied El-ahrairah, 'I am not angry. But I have learned that with creatures one loves, suffering is not the only thing for which one may pity them. A rabbit who does not know when a gift has made him safe is poorer than a slug, even though he may think otherwise himself.

Plot as such is not a major ingredient in my novels... it's often better to sail on the unconscious sea.

Stubbs may have envisaged the skeleton inside the horse, but most of us do not

Frith meant us to get back," replied Holly. "That's the real reason why we're here.

Now, Rowsby Woof was the man's dog; and he was the most objectionable, malicious, disgusting brute that ever licked a man's hand. He

Narrow lanes climb both slopes and come together in a great ring of elm trees which encircles the flat summit. Any wind--even the slightest--draws from the height of the elms a rushing sound, multifoliate and powerful.

Now Bigwig's put their backs up, and they'll think they've got to go on because he makes them. I want them to go on because they can see it's the only thing to do.

I should hurry, then, if I were you," said Blackberry. "The sun will be down soon." "Hah!" said Bigwig. "If I meet a stoat, it'd better look out, that's all. I'll bring you one back tomorrow, shall I?

I dare say a good many... would have kept quiet and thought about keeping on the right side of the Chief, but I'm afraid I'm not much good at that.

Bigwig: I can't think why he didn't convince Threarah. Hazel: Because Threarah doesn't like anything he hasn't thought of for himself.

He reached the top of the bank in a single, powerful leap. Hazel followed; and together they slipped away, running easily down through the wood, where the first primroses were beginning to bloom.

One} who does not know when a gift has made him safe is poorer than a slug, even though he may think otherwise himself.

alighted near Hazel and Fiver. "How's Holly?" asked Hazel. "'E sad," said Kehaar. "'E say you no come back." Then he added, "Mees Clover, she ready for mudder." "That's good," said Hazel. "Is anyone doing anything about it?" "Ya, ya, ees all to fight." "Oh, well, I suppose it'll sort itself out.

Hazel, watching, lent help here and there and encouraged the others.

to be dead may be nothing, yet who relishes the business of dying?

I don't know where ideas come from. They come from outer space or God, if you like, or from my subconscious mind. But I never go ou self-consciously looking for a story.

You needn't worry about them, said his companion. They'll be alright - and thousands like them. If you'll come along, I'll show you what I mean.

One cloud feels lonely.