Roald Dahl Quotes

“It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you.”

Source: The BFG

Roald Dahl book The Witches

"The Heart of a Mouse"
Source: The Witches (1983)

“If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

“Do you know what breakfast cereal is made of? It's made of all those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners!”

“I understand what you're saying, and your comments are valuable, but I'm gonna ignore your advice.”

“A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul and that, I am sure, is why he does it.”

Source: Fantastic Mr. Fox

“I am the maker of music, the dreamer of dreams!”

"Goodbye school" in Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984)

“Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable.”

Variant: We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.
Source: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

“We must hurry!’ said Mr. Wonka. ‘We have so much time and so little to do! No! Wait! Strike that! Reverse it!”

Source: Matilda said, "Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable...

Roald Dahl book Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

Variant: We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.
Source: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

Roald Dahl book The Minpins

The Minpins (1991)

“I'm right and you're wrong, I'm big and you're small, and there's nothing you can do about it.”

“Mr. Wonka: "Don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted."
Charlie Bucket: "What happened?"
Mr. Wonka: "He lived happily ever after.”

Source: Matilda

“The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world all to themselves.”

Source: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

“You should never, never doubt something that no one is sure of.”

Source: The BFG

“Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.”

Source: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

“I'm wondering what to read next." Matilda said. "I've finished all the children's books.”

“A little magic can take you a long way.”

Source: Matilda

“You seemed so far away," Miss Honey whispered, awestruck.

"Oh, I was. I was flying past the stars on silver wings," Matilda said. "It was wonderful.”

“Here it is,' Nigel said.
Mrs D, Mrs I, Mrs FFI, Mrs C, Mrs U, Mrs LTY. That spells difficulty.'
How perfectly ridiculous!' snorted Miss Trunchbull. 'Why are all these women married?”

Source: Matilda

“Life is more fun if you play games.”

Source: Matilda

Roald Dahl book My Uncle Oswald

Source: My Uncle Oswald

“We all have our moments of brilliance and glory, and this was mine.”

Roald Dahl book Boy

Source: Boy: Tales of Childhood

“I've heard tell that what you imagine sometimes comes true.
-Grandpa Joe”

“Whipped cream isn't whipped cream at all if it hasnt been whipped with whips, just like poached eggs isn't poached eggs unless it's been stolen in the dead of the night.”

Source: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

“I cannot for the life of me understand why small children take so long to grow up. I think they do it deliberately, just to annoy me.”

Source: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

“Fiona has the same glacial beauty of an iceburg, but unlike the iceburg she has absolutely nothing below the surface.”

Source: Matilda

“I want an Oompa-Loompa!' screamed Veruca.”

Source: Matilda

“Mr. Twit was a twit. He was born a twit. And, now at the age of sixty, he was a bigger twit than ever.”

Source: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Roald Dahl book The Twits

Source: The Twits

“What I mean and what I say is two different things," the BFG announced rather grandly.”

“Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it.”

Source: The BFG

“When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: A stodgy parent is not fun at all! What a child wants - and DESERVES - is a parent who is SPARKY!”

Roald Dahl book Danny, the Champion of the World

Danny, the Champion of the World (1975)
Context: A Message to Children Who Have Read This Book - When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: a stodgy parent is no fun at all. What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is SPARKY.

“And don’t worry about the bits you can’t understand. Sit back and allow the words to wash around you, like music.”

“I'd rather be fried alive and eaten by Mexicans.”

Source: Matilda

Roald Dahl James and the Giant Peach

Source: James and the Giant Peach

“Words," he said, "is oh such a twitch-tickling problem to me all my life.”

“But there was one other thing that the grown-ups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there.”

Source: The BFG