Quotes from Eva Ibbotson

Would you like me to stop talking? Because I can. I have to concentrate, but it's possible

People make their own worlds.

We mustn't only remember the good bits," she said. "We must remember the bad bits, too, so that we know it was real.

You'll never know what you've done for me," he said as they reached the gates of the level crossing. "If there's anything you want--" Clovis grinned. "Can I have Maia when she's grown up?" Finn's smile vanished in an instant. "No," he said.

Happiness is almost as good as magic for altering a person's looks.

When you know what you want you usually get it.

Do I know everything about him already? she thought, bewildered. And back came the answer: Everything. You are branded with this knowledge, you will have it for the rest of time.

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

It was his time with the Xanti which had changed him. They thought that everyone's life was like a river; you had to flow with the current and not struggle, which wasted breath and made you more likely to drown.

Miss Minton knew she was going to be dismissed, and she thought this was perfectly fair. A governess who let her charge sail up the rivers of the Amazon and live with Indian tribes could hardly expect to keep her job.

She realized that adventures, once they were over, were things that had to stay inside one--that no one else could quite understand.

The Unconscious, lately discovered by Professor Freud and used by others to store their joys, fears and frustrations, was for Nerine a gigantic subterranean wardrobe

they were still practicing the fiendishly difficult pattern at the end of the act where the diagonal lines of swans cross over and dissolve to form three groups: unequal groups, since the number seventeen is notoriously difficult to divide by three.

What do you mean to do with Maia when you do find her?" the professor asked that night. "Take her back to the Keminskys and never let her out of my sight again," said Miss Minton. "She may not find it easy." "Why on earth not? The Keminskys are the kindest people in the world." "Yes. But she has tasted freedom.

One must not judge other cultures by the standards of one's own

Knowing it was her last night on the Arabella , Maia fought against sleep. She must remember it all--the lapping of the water against the side of the boat, the white moths, the fireflies… Finn, too, was awake. "When we're grown up I'll come back for you, I promise. No one can stop us then.

Love begets love. As he grew, Petya followed his sister everywhere… "Wait for me, Annoushka!" … And Anna did wait for him. She was to do so always.

A faint terror lest she begin to curtsy took hold of Rupert.

Now, tell me everything, please. Of course if he has harmed you I shall kill him, whoever he is," he added matter-of-factly. "But otherwise, perhaps something can be done.

and after all, it wasn't her fault that she was an idiot and had two ridiculous children. Life isn't fair and never has been.

Then she washed and dressed very attentively, putting on high-heeled court shoes, silk stockings, a black skirt and crisply ironed white blouse, because she was Viennese and one dressed properly even when one's world had ended.

well wtith a statue hermann cannot possibly fight

He felt her hand creep from her muff into his pocket as they walked the snowy streets to buy their Christmas tree; dusted the pollen off her nose after he had brought her the first king-cups. By the gay and gilded fountains of Peterhof they bandied preposterous names for their unborn child. At night, in their big wooden bed, he watched her spoon cherry jam into her tea and told her that her habits were disgusting, that he loved her more than life itself.

I'm sorry you never got my note that night," said Minty. "I was arranging for us to go and live with them. You'll like that, won't you?" she asked Maia. Maia was silent, looking down at her plate. "Of course she will," jeered Finn. "Sergei will be able to kneel at her feet like a person in a book.