Roald Dahl

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.

Grown-ups are quirky creatures, full of quirks and secrets.

Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist and short story author of Norwegian descent, famous as a writer for both children and adults.

Sourced

• There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity; maybe it's a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean there is always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason.
  • As quoted in New Statesman (1983); partly quoted in "The Candy Man" by Margaret Talbot in The New Yorker (11 July 2005)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)

• "There's enough chocolate in there to fill every bathtub in the entire country! And all the swimming pools as well!"
  • Ch. 15, "The Chocolate Room"

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)

• "It is very difficult to phone people in China, Mr. President," said the Postmaster General, "The country is so full of Wings and Wongs, every time you wing you get the wong number."
  • Ch. 4, "The President" (p. 34 in the 1984 Bantam edition)

Danny, the Champion of the World (1975)

• Grown-ups are quirky creatures, full of quirks and secrets.

• A Message to Children Who Have Read This Book - When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: a stodgy parent is no fun at all. What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is SPARKY.

The BFG (1982)

• "The matter with human beans," the BFG went on, "is that they is absolutely refusing to believe in anything unless they is actually seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles."
• "Dreams is very mystical things," the BFG said. "Human beans is not understanding them at all. Not even their brainiest prossefors is understanding them."
  • "Cool Dreams"

The Witches (1983)

• It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you.
  • "The Heart of a Mouse"

The Minpins (1991)

• Little Billy’s mother was always telling him exactly what he was allowed to do and what he was not allowed to do. All the things he was allowed to do were boring. All the things he was not allowed to do were exciting. One of the things he NEVER NEVER was allowed to do, the most exciting of them all, was to go out through the garden gate all by himself and explore the world beyond.
• 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.

Misattributed

• My candle burns at both ends;
  It will not last the night;
  But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends —
  It gives a lovely light.
  • Edna St. Vincent Millay, in "First Fig" from A Few Figs from Thistles (1920); said to be a motto Roald Dahl lived by.

External links

• Official website
• Roald Dahl Foundation website
• Roald Dahl Museum
• Roald Dahl at the Internet Movie Database
• Roald Dahl at the Notable Names Database
• Find-A-Grave profile for Roald Dahl
• Bibliography at Fantastic Fiction
• Bibliography at ISFDB
• A guide to finding sources and literature about Roald Dahl, by Kelly Harkrader
• "The Candy Man" by Margaret Talbot in The New Yorker (11 July 2005)
• The Way Out television series