Eva Ibbotson Quotes

“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.”

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

“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]….”

“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.”

“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.”

“But she had to know words. She had to know everything.”

“I want to live like music sounds."- Ruth”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“What are you afraid of then?
Not Being able to see, I think not seeing because your obsessed by something that blots out the world.”

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