Beatrix Potter

Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943) was an English writer and illustrator who produced a series of much-loved children’s books. She was the subject of the 2006 biopic Miss Potter.

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Quotes[edit]

I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense...
- Journal entry (1896-11-17), from the National Trust collection.

Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were – Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter.
- The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902)

Don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.
- The Tale of Peter Rabbit

This is a Tale about a tail — a tail that belonged to a little red squirrel, and his name was Nutkin.
- The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (1903)

It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is "soporific." I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then I am not a rabbit.
- The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (1909)

Painting is an awkward thing to teach except the details of the medium. If you and your master are determined to look at nature and art in two different directions you are sure to stick.
- Journal entry from May 28, 1883, quoted in "Introducing Beatrix Potter" from The Victoria and Albert Museum

My mother is English, and as she was the one who read to us, my early world was A .A. Milne, Beatrix Potter, Kenneth Grahame, Lewis Carroll and Roald Dahl. None of them thought it necessary to protect children from darkness. On the contrary, they guided their readers right toward it. This gives one an enormous sense of being respected as a child. Not just of being trusted to handle things as they are, but to be accepted as not entirely good. To be recognized as having darkness within oneself, too. I don’t think I’ve trusted any author since who doesn’t address me with that assumption.
- Nicole Krauss Interview (2017)