CHARLES DE LINT QUOTES III

Canadian writer (1951- )

Remember the quiet wonders. The world has more need of them than it has for warriors.

CHARLES DE LINT

Moonheart


When you're touched by magic, nothing's ever quite the same again. What really makes me sad is all those people who never have the chance to know that touch. They're too busy, or they just don't hold with make-believe, so they shut the door without really knowing it was there to be opened in the first place.

CHARLES DE LINT

What the Mouse Found and Other Stories

Tags: magic


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

CHARLES DE LINT

"Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night", The Ivory and the Horn

Tags: reality


To me there's no difference between writing YA and adult except that in YA I make the book a little shorter and the protagonists are teens. The difference is in the readers.

CHARLES DE LINT

interview with Kim Antieau, April 28, 2008


I always feel that there is a curtain, you know, that if I could just peek behind the curtain I'd see how the world really works. And since I haven't had it I have to write about it instead.

CHARLES DE LINT

"Music and Myth: A Conversation with Charles de Lint", The Internet Review of Science Fiction


Labels don't mean much to me one way or another -- except when they close the minds of potential readers. I'd much rather we do away with genres and simply file everything under fiction. I know it can work -- one of my favourite record stores (Waterloo Music in Austin) simply files everything alphabetically and no one seems to have much problem finding what they're looking for.

CHARLES DE LINT

Green Man Review, October 2006


Once upon a time there was what there was, and if nothing had happened there would be nothing to tell.

CHARLES DE LINT

Dreams Underfoot


You can't stand up to the night until you understand what's hiding in its shadows.

CHARLES DE LINT

The Onion Girl

Tags: night


The real trouble comes from not knowing what we really want in the first place.

CHARLES DE LINT

"Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night", The Ivory and the Horn

Tags: desire


It's good to have mysteries. It reminds us that there's more to the world than just making do and having a bit of fun.

CHARLES DE LINT

"Paperjack", Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection

Tags: mystery


The family we choose for ourselves is more important than the one we were born into ... people have to earn our respect and trust, not have it handed to them simply because of genetics.

CHARLES DE LINT

Moonlight & Vines

Tags: family


Tattoos ... are the stories in your heart, written on your skin.

CHARLES DE LINT

The Mystery of Grace

Tags: tattoos


Only fools think they're wise; the rest of us just muddle through as we can.

CHARLES DE LINT

"Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night", The Ivory and the Horn

Tags: fools


Books and music saved me as a teenager because it was through them that I realized that I wasn't alone in my obsessive love for words and music.

CHARLES DE LINT

"One Thing Leads to Another: An Interview with Charles de Lint", The Yalsa Hub, September 19, 2013

Tags: books


That dichotomy between who she was and who she thought she should be was what really killed her.

CHARLES DE LINT

"Pal o' Mine", The Ivory and the Horn


Let me give you some advice: Try to approach things without preconceived ideas, without supposing you already know everything there is to know about them. Get that trick down and you'll be surprised at what's really all around you.

CHARLES DE LINT

Someplace to Be Flying


My theory about writing is that one should write books you'd like to read, but no one else has written yet. So, as long as I stick with that, I'm entertaining myself, and then hopefully my readers as well. I hope to god I realize that I'm repeating myself, if I ever do. But if I don't, I'm sure my readers will let me know.

CHARLES DE LINT

"A Conversation With Charles de Lint", SFsite, 2000


We end up stumbling our way through the forest, never seeing all the unexpected and wonderful possibilities and potentials because we're looking for the idea of a tree, instead of appreciating the actual trees in front of us.

CHARLES DE LINT

Tapping the Dream Tree

Tags: trees


If you're not ready to die, then how can you live?

CHARLES DE LINT

Svaha

Tags: death


The excitement I get from writing is finding out each day what happens next.

CHARLES DE LINT

"One Thing Leads to Another: An Interview with Charles de Lint", The Yalsa Hub, September 19, 2013

Tags: writing