Quotes from William Mayne

First is a poem, a ballad, out of Scotland. You may say there is no king in it, and of course there isn't, which is what makes it so sad. The last line of the third verse, 'O he might hae been a king' is so sad that I don't like to look at it with both eyes at once.

Dick and Tot walked down the lane together, deep in a conversation of silence.

I can stand you all being a lot worse now, because I can always go there. It's when I haven't got anywhere to go that I get mad straight away. But if I go there for half an hour it's beautiful to come back.

He tidies away abandoned things, like scraps of quarrel, or pieces of spite. He banishes small troubles, makes ghosts happy, soothes tired curtains, charms kettles into singing, and stops milk sulking.

His work is putting little things right, like folding away trampled thoughts, mending arguments, unkicking bruises, or unscorching the milk pan.

Hob is not meant to Think. I see and then I Do. I do not put things together to make sense.

Hob is not a plaything or a human toy.