Quotes from Eva Ibbotson

And so they played some of the world's loveliest piano music - the exiled homesick girl, the humiliated, tired old man. Not properly. Better than that.

For whether a place is a heaven or a hell rests in yourself, and those who go with courage may find themselves in paradise.

It's true that adventures are good for people even when they are very young. Adventures can get in a person's blood even if he doesn't remember having them.

Slowly, Anna put up a hand to his muzzle and began to scratch that spot behind the ear where large dogs keep their souls.

And so they played some of the world's loveliest piano music - the exiled homesick girl, the humiliated, tired old man. Not properly. Better than that.

Loneliness had taught Harriet that there was always someone who understood - it was just so often that they were dead, and in a book.

When you're sad, my Little Star, go out of doors. It's always better underneath the open sky.

She's like snow in Russian, said Anna. Snow in the evening when the sun sets and it looks like Alpengluhen, you know? And if snow had a scent it would smell like that [the rose]....

She was so intelligent that she could think herself into beauty. Intelligence...they don't talk about it much, the poets, but when a woman is intelligent and passionate and good...

Shadows are cool and peaceful places for those whose minds are overstocked with treasure.

You cannot stop the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can stop them nesting in your hair.

I want to live like music sounds.- Ruth

How dare you suppose that I don't know who you are or what you are? That I don't understand what I see? Do you take me for some kind of besotted schoolboy? It is unspeakable ! You could weigh as much as a hippopotamus and shave your head and wear a wig and it wouldn't make a difference to me. I never said you were beautiful. I never thought it. I said that you were you .

They were steaming out of the station before Maia asked, 'Was it books in the trunk?' 'It was books, admitted Miss Minton. And Maia said, 'Good.

Not a frog, I hope?" he asked…She shook her head. "No. And if it was I wouldn't kiss it, I promise you. I might kiss a prince if I could be sure he'd turn into a frog, but not the other way around.

He then kissed her. It was a very long time before he let her go. When he did, she looked up at him, hurt and bewilderment on her face. "Why did you stop?" asked Tessa. "I thought you might want to breathe," said Guy carefully. "Breathe?" said Tessa, shocked. "I don't need to breathe when I'm with you.

The news should have terrified her, but it was difficult to be frightened of anything when she was sitting so close to Rom. 'I thought we had convinced him that I was leading a blameless life?' 'We had, till you burst out of that damnable cake.

For an instant she felt his touch on her cheek then he stepped back. There that was my ration for all eternity. People have died for less I dare say.

This is worse than Hollywood, he thought. A girl comes in with a pork chop and I write a song for her.

One must not judge other cultures by the standars of one's one,' said Aunt Hilda

Well, dear, it's true that adventures are good for people even when they are very young. Adventures can get into a person's blood even if he doesn't remember having them.

one of the sisters started shaving her legs and marrying tax inspectors, so she was no good.

Just because we've never done it doesn't mean we can't do it.

Pauline kept a scrapbook into which she pasted important articles that she had cut out of the newspapers. These were about the courageous deeds that had been done by people even if they only had one leg or couldn't see or had been dropped on their heads when they were babies. 'It's to make me brave,' she'd explained to Annika.