P. L. Travers Quotes

Tonight the small are free from the great and the great protect the small.

Ettekö tiedä, hän sanoi surkutellen, - että jokaisella on oma Satumaansa.

Mary Poppins sighed with pleasure, however, when she saw three of herself, each wearing a blue coat with silver buttons and a blue hat to match. She thought it was such a lovely sight that she wished there had been a dozen of her or even thirty. The more Mary Poppins the better.

I’m not asleep,” Jane reassured her. “I’m thinking about the story.” “I heard every word,” said Michael, yawning. The Park Keeper rocked, as if in a trance. “A Nex-plorer in disguise,” he murmured, “sittin’ in the midnight sun and climbin’ the North Pole!” “Ouch!

Bird and beast and stone and star — we are all one, all one — — ” murmured the Hamadryad, softly folding his hood about him as he himself swayed between the children.

very quiet and still, as though it were thinking its own thoughts, or dreaming perhaps.

Gently, please, gently!” she warned, as they crowded about her. “This is a baby, not a battle-ship!

The lambs in their arms were as smooth as mushrooms, the flock at their heels unruffled. And amid all that froth of fleece, white and metrical as soap-suds, there was no sign of a black lamb.
What more could one ask, at a children’s Christmas Eve service? Yet I found that I did indeed want more, especially for the children’s sake — faces trodden by crows’-feet, signs of the ferment, one might almost say chaos, that this unprecedented event brought once and ever brings; something of life, even in carven faces, someone out of breath with running, someone stricken with joy.
And I dearly wanted a black lamb. For, without him, where are the ninety and nine? Flocks, like families, have need of their black sheep — he carries their sorrow for them. He is the other side of their whiteness. Does nobody understand, I wondered, that a crib without a black lamb is an incomplete statement?

"That's coral!" she cried in astonishment. "We must be down in the deeps of the sea!"
Well, wasn't that what you wanted?" said the trout. "I thought you wished you could see the sea!"
I did," said Jane, looking very surprised. "But I never expected the wish to come true."
Great oceans! Why bother to wish it then? I call that simply a waste of time. But come on! Mustn't be late for the party!

A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.

We'll never forget you, Mary Poppins!

One and one makes two,' she declared. 'And two halves make a whole. And Faithful Friends should be together, never kept apart.

"It was not very long afterwards that Michael woke up one morning with a curious feeling inside him. He knew, the moment he opened his eyes, that something was wrong but he was not quite sure what it was.
"What is today, Mary Poppins?" He enquired, pushing the bedclothes away from him.
"Tuesday," said Mary Poppins. "Go and turn on your bath. Hurry!" she said, as he made no effort to move. He turned over and pulled the bedclothes up over his head and the curious feeling increased.
"What did I say?" said Mary Poppins in that cold, clear voice that was always a Warning.
Michael knew now what was happening to him. He knew he was going to be naughty."

The remark quite shocked him. “Why, you’re often cross, Mary Poppins!” he said. “At least fifty times a day!” “Never!” she said with an angry snap. “I have the patience of a Boa Constrictor! I merely Speak My Mind!

"There! Come down! What are you doing up there? Come down! We can't have the girl walking through the air. It's not natural!"

But Maia was going up and up.