Quotes by Charles de Lint

“When alls said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So its not so much which road you take, as how you take it.”

“I want to touch the heart of the world and make it smile.”

“Life is like art. You have to work hard to keep it simple and still have meaning.”

“Witchery is merely a word for what we are all capable of.”

“Its good to have mysteries. It reminds us that theres more to the world than just making do and having a bit of fun.”

“Not everything has to mean something. Some things just are.”

“The problem with children is that you have to put up with their parents.”

“As far as Im concerned, the only difference between fact and what most people call fiction is about fifteen pages in the dictionary.”

“A long time ago a bunch of people reached a general consensus as to whats real and whats not and most of us have been going along with it ever since.”

“The thing with pretending youre in a good mood is that sometimes you can”

“Why did men worship in churches, locking themselves away in the dark, when the world lay beyond its doors in all its real glory?”

“One expected growth, change; without it, the world was less, the well of inspiration dried up, the muses fled.”

“No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist.”

“Were all made of stories. When they finally put us underground, the stories are what will go on. Not forever, perhaps, but for a time. Its a kind of immortality, I suppose, bounded by limits, its true, but then sos everything.”

“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”

“I think youre all mad. But thats part and parcel of being an artistic genius, isnt it?”

Were all made of stories. When they finally put us underground, the stories are what will go on. Not forever, perhaps, but for a time. Its a kind of immortality, I suppose, bounded by limits, its true, but then sos everything.

There are no happy endings... There are no endings, happy or otherwise. We all have our own stories which are just part of the one Story that binds both this world and Faerie. Sometimes we step into each others stories - perhaps just for a few minutes, perhaps for years - and then we step out of them again. But all the while, the Story just goes on.

I dont think the world is the way we like to think it is. I dont think its one solid world, but many, thousands upon thousands of them--as many as there are people--because each person perceives the world in his or her own way; each lives in his or her own world. Sometimes they connect, for a moment, or more rarely, for a lifetime, but mostly we are alone, each living in our own world, suffering our small deaths.

I dont want to live in the kind of world where we dont look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I cant change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit.