Joan Aiken Quotes

Writer

Joan Aiken, a renowned British writer, was born on September 4, 1924, in London, and passed away on January 4, 2004. She is best known for her works in fantasy and children's literature, creating numerous beloved stories over the years.

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Famous Joan Aiken Quotes

“Her smile was like a swift light passing across a darkened room. ("Hair")”

Smile

Book:Best New Horror 23

Source: Best New Horror 23

“And Mr. Knightley always wanted us to be friends!" "Yes, and if we had been we should have changed each other's lives." ...."Now we shall never have the chance; it it too late." And Emma said with equal sadness: "Yes, that is true. But at least we have stopped being enemies.”

Regret

Book:Jane Fairfax

Source: Jane Fairfax

“But this is your home' 'Not any longer, my poppet. Women make nests but men make bequests and scatter them. Heigh-ho!”

Economics Injustice Gender Inheritence

Book:Eliza's Daughter

Source: Eliza's Daughter

“The first book that a child reads has a colossal impact.”

Firsts Children Book Impact Colossal

Author:Joan Aiken

“A children's writer should, ideally, be a dedicated semi-lunatic, a kind of poet with a marvelous idea, who, preferably, when not committing the marvellous idea to paper, does something else of a quite different kind, so as to acquire new and rich experience.”

Should Kind Children Doe Ideas Different Literature Rich Poet Paper Acquire Dedicated Different Kinds Marvelous Lunatic Marvellous Children's Literature

Author:Joan Aiken

“since each child reads only about six hundred books in the course of childhood, each book should nourish them in some way - with new ideas, insight, humor, or vocabulary.”

Way Should Children Book Ideas Courses Childhood Six Hundred Insight New Ideas Vocabulary

Author:Joan Aiken

“Stories ought not to be just little bits of fantasy that are used to wile away an idle hour; from the beginning of the human race stories have been used - by priests, by bards, by medicine men - as magic instruments of healing, of teaching, as a means of helping people come to terms with the fact that they continually have to face insoluble problems and unbearable realities.”

“Sudden wealth was the great insulator, second only to sudden bereavement.”

Wealth Bereavement

Author:Joan Aiken

“If reading becomes a bore, mental death is on the way. Children taught to read by tedious mechanical means rapidly learn to skim over the dull text without bothering to delve into its implications -- which in time will make them prey to propaganda and to assertions based on scanty evidence, or none.”

Ifs Way Mean Children Reading Taught Evidence Bother Propaganda Dull Bores Prey Implications Assertion Tedious

Author:Joan Aiken

“Children read to learn - even when they are reading fantasy, nonsense, light verse, comics or the copy on cereal packets, they are expanding their minds all the time, enlarging their vocabulary, making discoveries - it is all new to them.”

“As cows need milking and sweet peas need picking, so writers must continually exercise their mental muscles by a daily stint.”

Needs Writing Sweet Exercise Muscles Cows Peas Sweet Peas

Author:Joan Aiken

“Words are like spices. Too many is worse than too few.”

Words Spices Few Words Wise Women

Book:The Last Slice of Rainbow: And Other Stories

Source: The Last Slice of Rainbow: And Other Stories

“Why do we want to have alternate worlds? It's a way of making progress. You have to imagine something before you do it.”

World Way Want Imagine Progress

Author:Joan Aiken

“You may think it odd that there were three men to look after one tiny station, but the people who ran the railway knew that if you left two men together in a lonely place they would quarrel, but if you left three men, two of them could always grumble to each other about the third, and then they would be quite happy.”

People Ifs Thinking Men Looks May Two Would Be Together Three Left Lonely Thirds Tiny Odd Ran Stations Quarrels Railway Lonely Places

Author:Joan Aiken

About the Author

Born: September 4, 1924
Died: January 4, 2004
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 14

Books & Sources

Best New Horror 23Related source material

Eliza's DaughterRelated source material

Jane FairfaxRelated source material

The Last Slice of Rainbow: And Other StoriesRelated source material

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