Quotes for Roald Dahl Day

Celebrating the work of the beloved children’s book author

September 13 is Roald Dahl’s birthday — and a day for those who have a special place in their hearts for his children’s books to celebrate his life and work. The following quotes are part of that celebration.

1. “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.” 2. “I will not pretend I wasn’t petrified. I was. But mixed in with the awful fear was a glorious feeling of excitement. Most of the really exciting things we do in our lives scare us to death. They wouldn’t be exciting if they didn’t.”

3. “I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I’ll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.”

4. “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” 5. “The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it.”

6. “So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookshelf on the wall.” 7. “Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.”

8. “Kindness — that simple word. To be kind — it covers everything, to my mind. If you’re kind that’s it.”

9. “A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom.”

10. “It’s impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren’t feeling twinkly yourself.”

11. “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

12. “Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable.”

13. “If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.”

14. “Pain was something we were expected to endure. But I doubt very much if you would be entirely happy today if a doctor threw a towel in your face and jumped on you with a knife.” 15. “We make realities out of our dreams and dreams out of our realities. We are the dreamers of the dream.”

16. “Don’t gobblefunk around with words.”

17. “I understand what you’re saying, and your comments are valuable, but I’m gonna ignore your advice.”

18. “Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.”

19. “A writer of fiction lives in fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not.”

20. “No book ever ends, when it’s full of your friends.”

21. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you.” 22. “Well, maybe it started that way. As a dream, but doesn’t everything? Those buildings. These lights. This whole city. Somebody had to dream about it first. And maybe that is what I did. I dreamed about coming here, but then I did it.”

23. “The human brain is an amazing thing.”

24. “A little magic can take you a long way.”

25. “An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details.”

26. “A life is made up of a great number of small incidents, and a small number of great ones.”

27. “Life is more fun if you play games.”

28. “Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it.”

29. “There are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven’t started wondering about yet.”

30. “Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.”

More from Kiki Wellington:

Sources:

13 Inspiring Quotes From Roald Dahl Books. Penguin Books. https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/children/2019/sept/inspiring-roald-dahl-quotes.html

Hurtado, A. (2020, September 13). Celebrate Roald Dahl Day With 70 of the Author’s Most Memorable Quotes. Parade. https://parade.com/1087241/alexandra-hurtado/roald-dahl-quotes/

Roald Dahl Quotes. A-Z Quotes. https://www.azquotes.com/author/3576-Roald_Dahl

Roald Dahl Quotes. BrainyQuote. https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/roald-dahl-quotes

Roald Dahl Quotes. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4273.Roald_Dahl

Roald Dahl Story Day. https://www.roalddahl.com/create-and-learn/join-in/roald-dahl-day