P.L. Travers > Quotes

“Don't you know that everybody's got a Fairyland of their own?”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“Once we have accepted the story, we cannot escape the story's fate.”
― P.L. Travers

“Who are you?" she inquired, as the cat passed by.
I'm the cat that looked at a king," he replied.
And I," she remarked with a toss of her head, "am the cow that jumped over the moon."
Is that so?" said the cat. "Whatever for?"
The cow stared. She had never been asked that question before. And suddenly it occured to her that there might something else to do than jumping over moons.”
― P.L. Travers

“The same substance composes us--the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star--we are all one, all moving to the same end.”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“I hate being good.
-Mary Poppins”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.”
― Pamela Lyndon Travers

“If you want to find Cherry-Tree Lane all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the cross-roads.”
― P. L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“Perhaps we are born knowing the tales of our grandmothers and all their ancestral kin continually run in our blood repeating them endlessly, and the shock they give us when we first bear them is not of surprise but of recognition.”
― P.L. Travers, About the Sleeping Beauty

“There was something strange and extraordinary about her – something that was frightening and at the same time most exciting.”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins - the Complete Collection: The classic magical adventure books for children

“Next time you must stay for tea and we'll all sit together on a rock and sing a song to the moon”
― P. L. Travers, Mary Poppins: The Complete Collection

“I shouldn't wonder if you didn't wonder much too much!”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins Comes Back

“We are all made of the same stuff, remember, we of the Jungle, you of the City. The same substance composes us—the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star—we are all one, all moving to the same end. Remember that when you no longer remember me, my child.”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“Mary Poppins never told anybody anything. . . .”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“What is real and what is not? Can you tell me or I you? Perhaps we shall never know more than this—that to think a thing is to make it true.”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“That's coral!" she cried in astonishment. "We must be down in the deeps of the sea!"
Well, wasn't that what you wanted?" said the trout. "I thought you wished you could see the sea!"
I did," said Jane, looking very surprised. "But I never expected the wish to come true."
Great oceans! Why bother to wish it then? I call that simply a waste of time. But come on! Mustn't be late for the party!”
― P.L. Travers

“Mary Poppins was very vain and liked to look her best. Indeed, she was quite sure that she never looked anything else.”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“We're on the brink of an Adventure. Don't spoil it by asking questions!”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins Comes Back

“And when, at last, .... I stood in London with ten pounds in my hand - five of which I promptly lost - the ancestors dwelling in my blood who, all my life, had summoned me with insistent eldritch voices, murmured together, like contented cats.”
― P.L. Travers, What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol and Story

“I’ll stay till the wind changes,” she said”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“Don’t you know that everybody’s got a Fairyland of their own?”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“Mary Poppins,” he cried, “you’ll never leave us, will you?”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“Michael knew now what was happening to him. He knew he was going to be naughty.”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“He could smell her crackling white apron and the faint flavour of toast that always hung about her so deliciously.”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“Michael, "I never expected the wish to come true."

The Trout, "Great Oceans! Why bother to wish it, then? I call that simply a waste of time.”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins Opens the Door

“She paused, as though she were remembering events that happened hundreds of years before that time.”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“And what's more, he'll go and live with his friend unless his friend is allowed to come in and live with him...His friend must have a silk cushion just like his and sleep in your room too. Otherwise he will go and sleep in the coal-cellar with his friend”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“And all the time he was enjoying his badness, hugging it to him as though it were a friend, and not caring a bit.”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“You can't expect two stars to drop in the same field in one lifetime”
― P.L. Travers

“There they were, all together, up in the air”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

“Some people,” remarked Mary Poppins, putting her down, “think a great deal too much. Of that I am sure.”
― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins Comes Back