And here I sit with my stamps in a complete muddle, and nobody has bothered to tell me what it's all about."
"Listen now, Hemul," said Snufkin slowly and clearly. "It's about a comet that is going to collide with the earth tomorrow."
"Collide?" said the Hemulen. "Has that anything to do with stamp-collecting?


Tove Jansson

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So how’s it going?”
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I'm asking God to bless you with something that unsettles you, disturbs you, and upsets you.
CRAIG GROESCHEL
Its three in the morning,' she noted with dismay. 'Do you think Simon’s all right?'
'I think ...
CASSANDRA CLARE
Santa Claus has nothing to do with it," the latke said. "Christmas and Hanukah are completely differ...
LEMONY SNICKET
Use your heart. Understand. Learn to see things
in the now, not as they were or will be, or as ...
E.J. PATTEN
About Miss Debenham," he said rather awkwardly. "You can take it from me that she's all right. She's...
AGATHA CHRISTIE
WHAT WAS TOLD, THAT

What was said to the rose that made it open was said to me here in my...
COLEMAN BARKS
I had a dream about you. We were in the gold room
where everyone finally gets what they want. RICHARD SIKEN
I lied," I said. ...
"I know it," he said.
"Then do something about it. Do anything, just ...
WILLIAM FAULKNER
So what's your doll's name?" Boo asked me.
"Barbie," I said. "All their names are Barbie."
SARAH DESSEN
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whos...
E.E. CUMMINGS
What?”
Jace was standing up now.
“When you first step off. Bend the knees right away...
CASSANDRA CLARE
Listen to me, Amin," I said slowly. "Listen to me very carefully. Nothing is the same. Nothing will ...
BARBARA COHEN
Tu-whoo! Ahem! Lord Regent," said the Owl, stooping down a little and holding its beak near the Dwar...
C.S. LEWIS
Would you like me to grovel with gratitude for bringing me here, High Lord?"

"Ah. The Sur...
SARAH J. MAAS
We need to talk,” she said. “All of us. About what we‘re going to do now.”
“I was goi...
CASSANDRA CLARE
Mom." I couldn't believe she was doing this again. She was taking this moment, this time when I was ...
SARAH DESSEN
Listen, Harr,y can I have a go on it? Can I?"

"I don't think anyone should ride that broo...
J.K. ROWLING
At Tara in this fateful hour,
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brig...
MADELEINE L'ENGLE
All I ever did to that apartment was hang fifty yards of yellow theatrical silk across the bedroom w...
JOAN DIDION
We can never make proper goodbyes. It was your last ride in a Checker cab and you had no warning. It...
COLSON WHITEHEAD
What's up?" I asked.

You tell me," he said. "You were the one about ready to start making...
RICHELLE MEAD
Might I,” quavered Mary, “might I have a bit of earth?”

In her eagerness she did no...
FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT
You know," said Arthur, "it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man fro...
DOUGLAS ADAMS
Maybe...you'll fall in love with me all over again."
"Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. Wh...
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Daring to dream is not difficult, it's making them come true that is hard...
NANETTE L. AVERY
What's this about slippers?" Stephanie's mom said, walking in.
"Dad's just saying he could neve...
DEREK LANDY
There was a Princess Somebody of Denmark sitting at a table with a number of people around her, and ...
RICHARD FEYNMAN
I'm in love with you," he said quietly.

"Augustus," I said.

"I am," he said. H...
JOHN GREEN
I had to stop him from arresting an old lady who let her dog urinate against the fire hydrant that w...
LEE GOLDBERG
How did you hear about that?'
'Are you kidding me? So far, I had that runt Kyle-'
'I hate ...
KAREN CHANCE
The nutritionist said I should eat root vegetables.
Said if I could get down thirteen turnips a...
ANDREA GIBSON
I was warned about you, you know."
And with that half-smile that wrecked me, Noah said, "But yo...
MICHELLE HODKIN
She pressed the rest of her clothes into my hands and said, "Don't do anything weird with them."
JIM BUTCHER
Hello, Bradley,' said Mom. She'd regained her composure after my outburst, and now raised her camera...
DAN WELLS
I said, I want to tell you something.
She said, you can tell me tomorrow.
I had never told...
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER
My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive and quivering
Against ...
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
Myrtle," Harry said slowly, "how am I supposed to breathe?"

At this, Myrtle's eyes filled...
J.K. ROWLING
As for myself: I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing sacred about myself or any human ...
KURT VONNEGUT
Tell me about Raffe."
Nothing.
"okay. Let's practice fighting," I said in an enthusiastic ...
SUSAN EE
I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up," he said.

"And it is my privilege and my resp...
JOHN GREEN
Shrinking in a corner,
pressed into the wall;
do they know I'm present,
am I here at ...
LANG LEAV
Don't tell me," Jace said, "Simon's turned himself into an ocelot and you want me to do something ab...
CASSANDRA CLARE
This is what it's all been about with you," he said in an even tone. "All the fear, all
the run...
KRESLEY COLE
I forgot that's what gets you all hot and bothered, Jace, girls killing things."
"I like anyone...
CASSANDRA CLARE
Everyone has a gift.
It's up to you to decide what you do with it.
ANTHONY T. HINCKS
Bianca, camp is cool! It's got a pegasus stable and a sword-fighting arena and… I mean, what do yo...
RICK RIORDAN
Nobody loves me, nobody cares,
Nobody picks me peaches and pears.
Nobody offers me candy a...
SHEL SILVERSTEIN
So that's it?" Kenji says. "You just like him for his personality, huh?"

"What?"
TAHEREH MAFI
Do you mean to tell me’, he growled a the Dursleys, ‘that this boy- this boy! - knows nothin’ ...
J.K. ROWLING
Before I tell you, I have to know three things," I said.
"Okay."
"One, are you sitting dow...
DARYNDA JONES
I’m in love with you,” he said quietly.
"Augustus," I said.

"I am," he said. He ...
JOHN GREEN
God! You'll do anything to avoid it.'
Avoid what?' my mother said.
The past,' Caroline sai...
SARAH DESSEN
I still stand by what I said. Do you want me to lie about it?' he asks.
'No, I want you to reth...
SUZANNE COLLINS
In the end there is nothing to be done but to state clearly what has been done, without shame or reg...
ELLIS PETERS
[Mouse is] with us. The dog is a handicap-assist animal."

The kid lifted his eyebrows. JIM BUTCHER
Still perfect,” he said. “Read to me.”
“This isn’t really a poem to read aloud when y...
JOHN GREEN
You look like hell,' he said to me in a low voice.

'Gee, Dax, don’t coat it with honey....
MARIA V. SNYDER
And because God has entrusted you with such riches, you can use these resources to make a profound d...
CRAIG GROESCHEL
When they said my name, I said, 'There is no way I can go up here without sharing it with Rubin,' .....
DENZEL WASHINGTON
I often think about her. One thing she said stayed with me, a dagger in my heart: "You know for me t...
INGRID BETANCOURT
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--

Ah," s...
ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPéRY
Do no look for that ideal person to be with, be that ideal person.
JEFFREY FRY
It was not the thought that I was so unloved that froze me. I had taught myself to do without love.<...
KURT VONNEGUT JR.
WHAT DADDY WOULD HAVE DONE

First he would have listened intently which one could always t...
URSULA DENISE WALKER
I started thinking about that, and I used to think that the Talib would come, and he would just kill...
MALALA YOUSAFZAI
Separation

Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Ev...
W.S. MERWIN
(Wilf) decided he wanted to sit down with me at some point later on and talk about some stuff. All h...
MATT BIRK
Each planet has a story to tell.
With Mars it was nuclear aniallation.
With Venus it was i...
ANTHONY T. HINCKS
Donneven," I said, in my best Monica imitation, and he laughed. "We're not talking about me."
"...
SARAH DESSEN
But what would have been the good?"
Aslan said nothing.
"You mean," said Lucy rather fai...
C.S. LEWIS
The thing about Wes," Delia said to me, unwrapping another package of
turkey, "is that he think...
SARAH DESSEN
(Frances has gotten out of bed again and come to her parents' room...)
'How can the wind have a...
RUSSELL HOBAN
won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
b...
LUCILLE CLIFTON
Foxes were dreaded animals. They were not large or fierce, like the bears and tigers that roamed the...
LINDA SUE PARK
I mean, d'you know what eternity is? There's this big mountain, see, a mile high, at the end of the ...
NEIL GAIMAN
While walking in a toy store
The day before today,
I overheard a Crayon Box
With many thin...
ANON.
No sex?" He looked at me in disbelief. "Well if you can't have ze sex, what can you do?"

...
ELNA BAKER
Then you've made the only choice. But there's a penalty attached, as there is to most things you wan...
MARGARET MITCHELL
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
...
E E CUMMINGS
Gazzy called over to me "I can't see anything!"
"I can't see anything either," Iggy complained....
JAMES PATTERSON
Querida, it's alright," he said. "No one has hurt me in years."
"Hey, you're supposed to be my ...
L.A. WEATHERLY
O Deep Thought computer," he said, "the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to...
DOUGLAS ADAMS
Dad?" Jesus asked.
"Yes, son?" God asked.
"Why do people get sick?" Jesus asked.
"Whe...
ANTHONY T. HINCKS
By the side of the everlasting Why there is a Yes--a transitory Yes if you like, but a Yes.
E.M. FORSTER
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must...
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
We’re not going to give in. We’re going to fight.”
“Got that right,” a voice cried ou...
MICHAEL GRANT
I have an apple that thinks its a pear. And a bun that thinks it’s a cat. And a lettuce that think...
PATRICK ROTHFUSS
Love entered in my heart one day
A sad, unwelcome guest.
But when it begged that it might ...
J. CALIFORNIA COOPER
The poet dreams of the classroom

I dreamed
I stood up in class
And I said aloud...
MARY OLIVER
She reached out and touched the bright colors of the cashmere scarf, her face filled with wonder as ...
RICHELLE MEAD
Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on: 'And how do you know that you're mad...
LEWIS CARROLL
I have spent so many nights out under the stars
Euphoria running through my veins and alcohol c...
MORRIS R. GATES
That's a pretty story,' said Afanasievna as she let go of Ansky's genitals. 'A pity I'm too old and ...
ROBERTO BOLAñO
Say something in Mandarin,” said Tessa, with a smile.
Jem said something that sounded like a ...
CASSANDRA CLARE
Now he haunts me seldom: some fierce umbilical is broken,
I live with my own fragile hopes and ...
JAMES KAVANAUGH
Laugh and the world laughs with you,
Weep, and you weep alone;
For this brave old earth must...
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
Well, I hate to tell you this," she said, "but your friend is an asshole."
"He's not my friend,...
CASSANDRA CLARE

More Tove Jansson

Lie on the bridge and watch the water flowing past. Or run, or wade through the swamp in your red bo...
TOVE JANSSON
It'd be awful if the world exploded, it's so wonderfully splendid
TOVE JANSSON
All men have parties and are pals who never let each other down. A pal can say terrible things which...
TOVE JANSSON
When one's dead, one's dead... This squirrel will become earth all in his time. And still la...
TOVE JANSSON
Christmas always rustled. It rustled every time, mysteriously, with silver and gold paper, tissue pa...
TOVE JANSSON
On the morning, Daddy and I get up at six o'clock because Christmas trees must be bought in the ...
TOVE JANSSON
People idealise their animals, and at the same time they patronisingly overlook a dog's natural ...
TOVE JANSSON
I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream!
TOVE JANSSON
A theatre is the most important sort of house in the world because that's where people are shown...
TOVE JANSSON
She started thinking about all the euphemisms for death, all the anxious taboos that had always fasc...
TOVE JANSSON
You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.
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My bag was as light as my happy-go-lucky heart.
TOVE JANSSON
It was simply that she was only fully alive when she devoted herself to her singular ability to draw...
TOVE JANSSON
Dogs are mute and obedient, but they have watched us and know us and can smell how pitiful we are.
TOVE JANSSON
she counted out five sweets and put them on a saucer. Then she went and put them on the ledge in the...
TOVE JANSSON
Есть на свете те, кто остается, и те, кто собирается в пу...
TOVE JANSSON
There are such a lot of things that have no place in summer and autumn and spring. Everything that�...
TOVE JANSSON
We sat talking on a rock. The air was filled with the tang of sea-weed and of something else that co...
TOVE JANSSON
I wish I was more Moomin-minded.
TOVE JANSSON
The hemulen woke up slowly and recognised himself and wished he had been someone he didn't know.
TOVE JANSSON
Moominpappa was busy on the verandah, making punch in a barrel. He put in almonds and raisins, lotus...
TOVE JANSSON
Those damn Moomins. I don't want to hear about them any more. I could vomit on the Moomintrolls.
TOVE JANSSON
Everything's much too big here,' thought Moominmamma. 'Or perhaps I'm too small.
TOVE JANSSON
You must go on a long journey before you can really find out how wonderful home is.
TOVE JANSSON
It looks rather ordinary," said the Snork. "Unless you consider that a top hat is always somewhat ex...
TOVE JANSSON
It was a particularly good evening to begin a book.
TOVE JANSSON
One summer morning at sunrise a long time ago
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Only farmers and summer guests walk on the moss. What they don't know - and it cannot be repeated to...
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Once a year the Hattifatteners collect there before setting out again on their endless foraging expe...
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An island can be dreadful for someone from outside. Everything is complete, and everyone has his obs...
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This has completely disturbed my peace," he complained. "A philosopher should be protected against t...
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Someone who eats pancakes and jam can't be so awfully dangerous. You can talk to him.
TOVE JANSSON
When they reached the top of the hill they turned and looked down at the valley. Moominhouse was jus...
TOVE JANSSON
People carry their loved ones with them. They are forever present.
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Every year, the bright Scandinavian summer nights fade without anyone's noticing. One evening in Aug...
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I wanted to write about relationships in a more honest, raw sort of way. Get away from all those cli...
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I can't live just being content. I can't have a routine. I can't be settled because then...
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It's OK to joke about yourself and have self-perspective, but, like, when you constantly put you...
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At first, my bedroom had flowers and yellow walls and huge furniture in plastic that was orange and ...
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Both my best and my worst habit is that I'm very impulsive.
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If you say, 'I listen to pop,' you picture this kind of perfect, colorful, polished song. I ...
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I am an open book, and I'm fine being me: I'm not a perfect person.
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That's kind of how I am - a roller coaster of emotions.
TOVE LO