305 Quotes by Tove Jansson

You can’t always be friendly. It’s impossible, there isn’t the time.

And that night he couldn’t sleep, but lay looking out at the light June night which was full of lonely whisperings and rustlings and the pattering of feet. The air was sweet with the smell of flowers.

Someone who eats pancakes and jam can’t be so awfully dangerous. You can talk to him.

Only farmers and summer guests walk on the moss. What they don’t know – and it cannot be repeated too often – is that moss is terribly frail. Step on it once and it rises the next time it rains. The second time, it doesn’t rise back up. And the third time you step on moss, it dies.

I have every respect for your deductions, but you are wrong, completely and absolutely, and without any doubt. – The Muskrat.

I’ll wind all the clocks,’ he thought. ‘Perhaps that makes the spring come a tiny bit earlier. And someone might wake up if I happen to break some big thing.

But I was held down to earth by being constantly reminded that the world expects much of the gifted and that having talent is never an excuse for not using it.

Gathering is peculiar, because you see nothing but what you’re looking for. If you’re picking raspberries, you see only what’s red, and if you’re looking for bones you see only the white. No matter where you go, the only thing you see is bones.

I know I do everything. I’ve been doing everything for an awfully long time, and I’ve seen and lived as hard as I could, and it’s been unbelievable, I tell you, unbelievable. But now I have the feeling everything is gliding away from me, and I don’t remember, and I don’t care, and yet now is right when I need it.