Roald Dahl Quotes

“My darling," she said at last, are you sure you don't mind being a mouse for the rest of your life?"
"I don't mind at all" I said.
It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like as long as somebody loves you.”
― Roald Dahl, The Witches

“A whizzpopper!" cried the BFG, beaming at her. "Us giants is making whizzpoppers all the time! Whizzpopping is a sign of happiness. It is music in our ears! You surely is not telling me that a little whizzpopping if forbidden among human beans?”
― Roald Dahl, The BFG

“Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous...”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“With frightening suddenness he now began ripping the pages out of the book in handfuls and throwing them in the waste-paper basket.
Matilda froze in horror. The father kept going. There seemed little doubt that the man felt some kind of jealousy. How dare she, he seemed to be saying with each rip of a page, how dare she enjoy reading books when he couldn't? How dare she?”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“You can write about anything for children as long as you've got humour.”
― Roald Dahl, The Witches

“I libri le aprivano mondi nuovi e le facevano conoscere persone straordinarie che vivevano una vita piena di avventure. Viaggiava su antichi velieri con Joseph Conrad. Andava in Africa con Ernest Hemingway e in India con Kipling. Girava il mondo restando seduta nella sua stanza, in un villaggio inglese.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“This allowed her two glorious hours sitting quietly by herself in a cozy corner, devouring one book after another. When she had read every single children's book in the place, she started wandering round in search of something else.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“It was one of those golden autumn afternoons and there were blackberries and splashes of old man's beard in the hedges, and the hawthorn berries were ripening scarlet for the birds when the cold winter came along. There were tall trees here and there on either side, oak and sycamore and ash and occasionally a sweet chestnut.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“You seem surprised to find us here,’ the man said.
‘I am,’ I said. ‘I wasn’t expecting to find anyone.’
‘We are everywhere,’ the man said. ‘We are all over the country.’
‘Forgive me,’ I said, ‘but I don’t understand. Who do you mean by we?’
‘Jewish refugees.’
[...]
‘Is this your land?’ I asked him.
‘Not yet,’ he said.
‘You mean you are hoping to buy it?’
He looked at me in silence for a while. Then he said, ‘The land is at present owned by a Palestinian farmer but he has given us permission to live here. He has also allowed us some fields so that we can grow our own food.’
‘So where do you go from here?’ I asked him. ‘You and all your orphans?’
‘We don’t go anywhere,’ he said, smiling through his black beard. ‘We stay here.’
‘Then you will all become Palestinians,’ I said. ‘Or perhaps you are that already.’
He smiled again, presumably at the naïvety of my questions.
‘No,’ the man said, ‘I do not think we will become Palestinians.’
‘Then what will you do?’
‘You are a young man who is flying aeroplanes,’ he said, ‘and I do not expect you to understand our problems.’
‘What problems?’ I asked him. The young woman put two mugs of coffee on the table as well as a tin of condensed milk that had two holes punctured in the top. The man dripped some milk from the tin into my mug and stirred it for me with the only spoon. He did the same for his own coffee and then took a sip.
‘You have a country to live in and it is called England,’ he said. ‘Therefore you have no problems.’
‘No problems!’ I cried. ‘England is fighting for her life all by herself against virtually the whole of Europe! We’re even fighting the Vichy French and that’s why we’re in Palestine right now! Oh, we’ve got problems all right!’ I was getting rather worked up. I resented the fact that this man sitting in his fig grove said that I had no problems when I was getting shot at every day. ‘I’ve got problems myself’, I said, ‘in just trying to stay alive.’
‘That is a very small problem,’ the man said. ‘Ours is much bigger.’
I was flabbergasted by what he was saying. He didn’t seem to care one bit about the war we were fighting. He appeared to be totally absorbed in something he called ‘his problem’ and I couldn’t for the life of me make it out. ‘Don’t you care whether we beat Hitler or not?’ I asked him.
‘Of course I care. It is essential that Hitler be defeated. But that is only a matter of months and years. Historically, it will be a very short battle. Also it happens to be England’s battle. It is not mine. My battle is one that has been going on since the time of Christ.’
‘I am not with you at all,’ I said. I was beginning to wonder whether he was some sort of a nut. He seemed to have a war of his own going on which was quite different to ours.
I still have a very clear picture of the inside of that hut and of the bearded man with the bright fiery eyes who kept talking to me in riddles. ‘We need a homeland,’ the man was saying. ‘We need a country of our own. Even the Zulus have Zululand. But we have nothing.’
‘You mean the Jews have no country?’
‘That’s exactly what I mean,’ he said. ‘It’s time we had one.’
‘But how in the world are you going to get yourselves a country?’ I asked him. ‘They are all occupied. Norway belongs to the Norwegians and Nicaragua belongs to the Nicaraguans. It’s the same all over.’
‘We shall see,’ the man said, sipping his coffee. The dark-haired woman was washing up some plates in a basin of water on another small table and she had her back to us.
‘You could have Germany,’ I said brightly. ‘When we have beaten Hitler then perhaps England would give you Germany.’
‘We don’t want Germany,’ the man said.
‘Then which country did you have in mind?’ I asked him, displaying more ignorance than ever.
‘If you want something badly enough,’ he said, ‘and if you need something badly enough, you can always get it.’ [...]‘You have a lot to learn,’ he said. ‘But you are a good boy. You are fighting for freedom. So am I.”
― Roald Dahl, Going Solo

“The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
She whips a pistol from her knickers.
She aims it at the creature's head,
And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.”
― Roald Dahl Revolting Rhymes

“Hey!' Bruno called out 'Give me the rest of that banana I was eating.”
― Roald Dahl

“Hiçbir yerden tek ses bile duyulmuyordu. Şeftalinin üzerinde yolculuk yapmak hiç de bir uçak yolculuğuna benzemiyordu. Uçak gökyüzünde patırtılar, gürültüler çıkararak hareket eder ve o kocaman bulut dağlarına gizlenmiş duran bir şeyler varsa, uçak gelirken koşup saklanırlar. İşte bu yüzden, uçakla yolculuk edenler hiçbir şey göremezler.”
― Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach

“Era davvero uno strano spettacolo guardare quella personcina seduta, i cui piedi non arrivavano a terra, completamente assorta nelle meravigliose avventure di Pip e della vecchia signorina Havisham con la sua casa piena di ragnatele, persa nell'incantesimo che Dickens, il grande inventore di storie, aveva saputo creare.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“What did she do to you?" Matilda asked.
"I don't want to talk about it," Miss Honey said. "It's too horrible."

"But surely you could have complained to somebody?" Matilda said.
"To whom?" Miss Honey said. "And anyway, I was far too terrified to complain. I told you, I was her slave."
"Did she beat you?"
"Let's not go into details," Miss Honey said.”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“... it's impossible to write the whole, true story of anything. We always leave things out. We quite often put things in. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try not to, we change things. We tell the story in our own way, which might not be the same way someone else would tell it.”
― Michael Rosen, Fantastic Mr. Dahl

“Any conversation including the mention of Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury, or Emily Dickinson is one worth getting into or at least eavesdropping.”
― Don Roff

“Just look at that beastly duck cooking at my stove!" Cried Mrs Gregg as she flew past the kitchen window. "How dare she!”
― Roald Dahl, The Magic Finger

“Even so,' she said, defending her own race, 'I think it's rotten that those foul giants should go off every night to eat humans. Humans have never done them any harm.'
'That is what the little piggy-wig is saying every day,' the BFG answered. 'He is saying, "I has never done any harm to the human bean so why should he be eating me?"'
'Oh dear,' Sophie said.
'The human beans is making rules to suit themselves,' the BFG went on. 'But the rules they is making do not suit the little piggy-wiggies. Am I right or left?'
'Right,' Sophie said.
'Giants is also making rules. Their rules is not suiting the human beans. Everybody is making his own rules to suit himself.'
'But you don't like it that those beastly giants are eating humans every night, do you?' Sophie asked.
'I do not,' the BFG answered firmly.”
― Roald Dahl, The BFG

“But Goldilocks, like many freaks, Does not appreciate antiques.”
― Roald Dahl, Revolting Rhymes

“Until he was four years old, James Henry Trotter had a happy life. He lived peacefully with his mother and father in a beautiful house beside the sea. There were always plenty of other children for him to play with, and there was the sandy beach for him to run about on, and the ocean to paddle in. It was a perfect life for a small boy.
Then, one day, James's mother and father went to London to do some shopping, and there a terrible thing happened. Both of them suddenly got eaten up (in full daylight, mind you, and on a crowded street) by an enormous angry rhinoceros which had escaped from the London Zoo.”
― Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach

“But what about you, Miss Spider?’ asked James. ‘Aren’t you also much loved in the world?’
‘Alas, no,’ Miss Spider answered, sighing long and loud. ‘I am not loved at all. And yet I do nothing but good. All day long I catch flies and mosquitoes in my webs. I am a decent person.’
‘I know you are,’ said James.
‘It is very unfair the way we Spiders are treated,’ Miss Spider went on. ‘Why, only last week your own horrible Aunt Sponge flushed my poor dear father down the plug-hole in the bathtub.’
‘Oh, how awful!’ cried James.
‘I watched the whole thing from a corner up in the ceiling,’ Miss Spider murmured. ‘It was ghastly. We never saw him again.’ A large tear rolled down her cheek and fell with a splash on the floor.”
― Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach

“Los Gingantes [] no se matan entre sí [] ni los gatos matan a los gatos -matan a los ratones- señaló Sofía, [] los guisantes humanos son los únicos que se matan entre sí. [] Los guisantes humanos se aplastan entre ellos sin cesar , se disparan cañones y montan en aerioplanos para arrojarse bombas en la cabeza. [] ¡Los guisantes humanos no dejan de asesinar a otros guisantes humanos! [] (Sofía) empezaba a preguntarse si los humanos eran mejores que los gigantes.”
― Roalds Dāls, The BFG

“If this person, I kept telling myself, was one of God’s chosen salesmen on earth, then there must be something very wrong about the whole business.”
― Roald Dahl, Innocence

“One could almost hear him saying, 'It's me! Here I come, the great man himself, the master of the house, the wage-earner, the one who makes it possible for the rest of you to live so well! Notice me and pay your respects!”
― Roald Dahl, Matilda

“I think you’re wonderful,’ James told her. ‘Can I ask you one special question?’
‘Please do.’
‘Well, is it really true that I can tell how old a Ladybird is by counting her spots?’
‘Oh no, that’s just a children’s story,’ the Ladybird said. ‘We never change our spots. Some of us, of course, are born with more spots than others, but we never change them. The number of spots that a Ladybird has is simply a way of showing which branch of the family she belongs to.”
― Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach

“Pero a mí me pareció que había algo raro en su forma de hablar y en su aburrimiento: una sombra malévola en su ceño, y en su actitud una determinación que me produjo cierto desasosiego al mirarle,”
― Roald Dahl, La cata

“Don`t you worry Roald Dahl, The 6-year old me loved you but the 16-year old me worships you.”
― Vaishnavi Hajari

“Perhaps it is only someone who has experienced first-hand what family can and should mean who can be so ruthless when they write about those who fall short of producing the ideal for their offspring.”
― Lucy Mangan, Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory: The Complete Story of Willy Wonka, the Golden Ticket, and Roald Dahl's Most Famous Creation.

“A good children's book teaches the uses of words, the joy of playing with language. Above all, it helps children learn not to be frightened of books. Once they get through a book and enjoy it, they realize that books are something they can cope with. If my books can help children become readers, then I feel I have accomplished something important.”
― Lucy Mangan, Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory: The Complete Story of Willy Wonka, the Golden Ticket, and Roald Dahl's Most Famous Creation.

“...someone asking for the Roald Dahls - the ones before they had made the giant average-size, and Augustus Gloop suffering from a glandular disorder...”
― Jenny Colgan, Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop