J. R. R. Tolkien

“Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.”

“Wars are not favourable to delicate pleasures.”

“My advice to all who have the time or inclination to concern themselves with the international language movement would be: 'Back Esperanto loyally.'”

“Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more Perfect world, or even with a little more care in this very imperfect one) both partners might be found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.”

“That story was the only thing I have ever done which cost me absolutely no pains at all. Usually I compose only with great difficulty and endless rewriting. I woke up one day (more than 2 years ago) with that odd thing virtually complete in my head. It took only a few hours to get down, and then copy out.”

“I wept when I wrote that.”

“I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones...”

“the most tragic moment in the Tale comes in II 323 ff. ['The Stairs of Cirith Ungol'] when Sam fails to note the complete change in Gollum's tone and aspect. 'Nothing, nothing', said Gollum softly. ‘Nice master!'. His repentance is blighted and all Frodo's pity is (in a sense) wasted. Shelob's lair became inevitable.”

“I liked him better than all the other characters[…]”

“[C]ontrary to most people, I think that touching your cap to the squire may be damn bad for the squire but it's damn good for you.”

“It is impossible for an author still writing to be fair to another author working along the same lines. At least I find it so. In fact I dislike Dune with some intensity, and in that unfortunate case it is much the best and fairest to another author to keep silent and refuse to comment.”

“Every morning I wake up and think good, another 24 hours' pipe-smoking.”

“If you really come down to any large story that interests people – holds the attention for a considerable time ... human stories are practically always about one thing, aren't they? Death. The inevitability of death.”

“It gives me great pleasure, a good name. I always in writing start with a name. Give me a name and it produces a story, not the other way about normally.”

“I do so dearly believe that no half-heartedness and no worldly fear must turn us aside from following the light unflinchingly.”

“"I wish life was not so short," he thought. "Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about."”

“"[M]y friend Professor Tolkien asked me the very simple question, 'What class of men would you expect to be most preoccupied with, and most hostile to, the idea of escape?' and gave the obvious answer: jailers."”

“Trees are not 'trees', until so named and seen — and never were so named, till those had been who speech's involuted breath unfurled, faint echo and dim picture of the world.”

“The heart of man is not compound of lies, but draws some wisdom from the only Wise, and still recalls him. Though now long estranged, man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.”

“All wishes are not idle, nor in vain fulfilment we devise — for pain is pain, not for itself to be desired, but ill; or else to strive or to subdue the will alike were graceless; and of Evil this alone is deadly certain: Evil is.”

“Though all the crannies of the world we filled with elves and goblins, though we dared to build gods and their houses out of dark and light, and sow the seeds of dragons, 'twas our right (used or misused). The right has not decayed. We make still by the law in which we're made.”

“Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme of things not found within recorded time.”

“In such 'fantasy', as it is called, new form is made; Faerie begins; Man becomes a sub-creator.”

“Small wonder that spell means both a story told, and a formula of power over living men.”

“The story-maker proves a successful 'sub-creator'. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is 'true': it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed.”

“Fantasy is a higher form of Art, indeed the most nearly pure form, and so (when achieved) the most potent.”

“And lastly there is the oldest and deepest desire, the Great Escape: the Escape from Death. Fairy-stories provide many examples and modes of this … Fairy-stories are made by men not by fairies. The Human-stories of the elves are doubtless full of the Escape from Deathlessness.”

“There was once a little man called Niggle, who had a long journey to make. He did not want to go, indeed the whole idea was distasteful to him; but he could not get out of it. He knew he would have to start some time, but he did not hurry with his preparations.”

“There was one picture in particular which bothered him. It had begun with a leaf caught in the wind, and it became a tree; and the tree grew, sending out innumerable branches, and thrusting out the most fantastic roots.”

“"It's a gift!" he said. He was referring to his art, and also to the result; but he was using the word quite literally.”