Top 15 Lloyd Alexander Quotes

Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.

Child, child, do you not see? For each of us comes a time when we must be more than what we are.

Keep reading. It's one of the most marvelous adventures that anyone can have.

We don't need to have just one favorite. We keep adding favorites. Our favorite book is always the book that speaks most directly to us at a particular stage in our lives. And our lives change. We have other favorites that give us what we most need at that particular time. But we never lose the old favorites. They're always with us. We just sort of accumulate them.

Most of us are called on to perform tasks far beyond what we can do. Our capabilities seldom match our aspirations, and we are often woefully unprepared. To this extent, we are all Assistant Pig-Keepers at heart.

Books can truly change our lives: the lives of those who read them, the lives of those who write them. Readers and writers alike discover things they never knew about the world and about themselves.

Neither refuse to give help when it is needed,... nor refuse to accept it when it is offered.

In some cases we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.

Long ago I yearned to be a hero without knowing, in truth, what a hero was. Now, perhaps, I understand it a little better. A grower of turnips or a shaper of clay, a Commot farmer or a king — every man is a hero if he strives more for others than for himself alone.
Once you told me that the seeking counts more than the finding. So, too, must the striving count more than the gain.

Indeed, the more we find to love, the more we add to the measure of our hearts.

The journey is the treasure.

All that writers can do is keep trying to say what is deepest in their hearts.

Life's a forge! Yes, and hammer and anvil, too! You'll be roasted, smelted, and pounded, and you'll scarce know what's happening to you. But stand boldly to it! Metal's worthless till it's shaped and tempered! More labor than luck. Face the pounding, don't fear the proving; and you'll stand well against any hammer and anvil.

Is there worse evil than that which goes in the mask of good?

Thinking is a bit uncomfortable, but you'll get used to it. A matter of time and practice.