368 Quotes by Charles de Lint

The thing to remember when you’re writing,” he said, ” is, it’s not whether or not what you put on paper is true. It’s whether it wakes a truth in your reader. I don’t care what literary device you might use, or belief systems you tap into – if you can make a story true for the reader, if you can give them a glimpse into another way of seeing the world, or another way that they can cope with their problems, then that story is a succes.

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.

It’s the questions we ask, the journey we take to get to where we are going that is more important than the actual answer.

The trouble with magic is that it never really lets go. If you work one magic to undo another, you might end up with a bigger problem than you had in the first place.

Nothing’s free in this world,” Zeffy told her, “except leftovers and friendship, and even friendship costs. The difference is, usually we don’t mind paying the coin it requires.

Stone walls confine a tinker; cold iron binds a witch; but a musician’s music can never be fettered, for it lives first in her heart and mind.

I swear that all dogs are born knowing certain words. Walk. Eat. Good dog. The important stuff.

If everybody really and truly treated each other the way they’d want to be treated, all the problems of the world would be solved. Nobody would starve, because nobody’d want to go hungry themselves. Nobody would steal, or kill, or hurt each other, because they wouldn’t want that to happen to themselves.

The stronger a woman gets, the more insecure the men in her life feel. It doesn’t work that way for a woman. We celebrate strength – in our partners as well as in ourselves.