Lloyd Alexander Quotes

I had always been interested in mythology. I suppose my brief stay in Wales during World War II influenced my writing, too. It was an amazing country. It has marvelous castles and scenery.

I’m impossible when a book is taking shape. Well, actually, I’m despicable.

I loved all the world’s mythologies.

Writing has got to be some of the hardest work I know.

If writers learn more from their books than do readers, perhaps I may have begun to learn.

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.

Talented people are finding that writing for young people is as demanding of high quality as writing for adults.

I decided that adventure was the best way to learn about writing.

My family pleaded with me to forget literature and do something sensible, such as find some sort of useful work.

Eventually, I was sent to Wales and Germany, and after the war, to Paris.

There’s this huge number of desperate people.

Heroes are people who think more of others than themselves. This is not to say that they don’t think of themselves. They do. They certainly do. But they think of others more.

My imagination can do whatever it wants to do. This gives me a great sense of freedom.

Most of my books have been written in the form of fantasy.

When I was discharged, I attended the University of Paris and met a beautiful Parisian girl, Janine. We soon married and eventually returned to the States.

I used the imaginary kingdom not as a sentimentalized fairyland but as an opening wedge to express what I hoped would be some very hard truths.

After I saved some money, I quit work and went to a local college.

My parents were horrified when I told them I wanted to be an author.

I guess there’s only two possible places ideas can come from. One is the outside: everything that happens to you and everything that you do in life. And the other is the inside part: your own personality and imagination, and no two people are alike, like fingerprints.

I first wrote for adults, but when I started writing for young people, it was the most creative and liberating experience of my life. I was able to express my own deepest feelings far more than I ever could when writing for adults.

Classical heroes are usually much larger than life. They’re not quite human beings. They’re somehow larger than human scale.

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

It was 1943. The U.S. had already entered World War II, so I decided to join the army.

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

King Arthur was one of my heroes – I played with a trash can lid for a knightly shield and my uncle’s cane for the sword Excalibur.