Charles de Lint: Quotes about life

“I love this world … That is what rules my life.”

Charles de Lint

Goninan in Part One: The Hidden People, "Border Spirit" p. 336
The Little Country (1991)
Context: I love this world … That is what rules my life. When I die, I want to have done all in my power to leave it in a better state than it was in when I found it. At the same time I know that this can never be. The world has grown so complex that one voice can do little to alter it any longer. That doesn't stop me from doing what I can but it makes the task hard. The successes are so small, the failures so large and many. It's like trying to stem a storm with one's bare hands.

Love , Life , World

“I don't care what they might think of me; but I don't want lies about my life used to invalidate the stories. My characters seem real because they are drawn from the realities of my life.”

Charles de Lint

"Journal Entries", p. 188
Memory and Dream (1994)
Context: I don't know why I care what people write about me after I'm dead, except that since I invest so much of my time telling the truth in my fiction, I'd hate to see someone play fast and loose with the pieces of my life. I don't care what they might think of me; but I don't want lies about my life used to invalidate the stories. My characters seem real because they are drawn from the realities of my life. I didn't have to research their pain; I just tapped into my own.

Life , Thinking , Reality

“While you live … you have a duty to life. … The fey wonders of the world only exist while there are those with the sight to see them. … Otherwise they fade away.”

Charles de Lint

Source: Into the Green (1993), p. 26; This has also been misquoted as "The few wonders of the world only exist while there are those with the sight to see them."

Life , World

“I've always believed the lies we use to make our fictions reveal the truth with far more honesty than any history or herstory or life story.”

Charles de Lint

"Journal Entries", p. 118
Memory and Dream (1994)

Life , Truth , History

“The real problem is, people think life is a ladder, and it’s really a wheel.”

Charles de Lint

“The Forest is Crying”, p. 44 (quoting Pat Cadigan)
The Ivory and the Horn (1996)

Life , People , Problem , Thinking

“I was going through the motions of life, instead of really living, and there’s no excuse for that. It’s not something I’ll let happen to me again.”

Charles de Lint

Making a Noise in This World in Hartwell ed. Year's Best Fantasy, (2000) p. 326