Judith Kerr Quotes

“And then he ate all the biscuits and all the cake, until there was nothing left to eat on the table.”

“Excuse me, but I’m very hungry. Do you think I could have tea with you?”

“He ate all the supper that was cooking in the saucepans... and all the food in the fridge, and all the packets and tins in the cupboard.. and then he drank all the milk, and all the orange juice, and all Daddy’s beer, and all the water in the tap.”

“I wonder who that can be. It can’t be the milkman because he came this morning. And it can’t be the boy from the grocer, because this isn’t the day he comes. And it can’t be Daddy, because he’s got his key. We’d better open the door and see.”

“I don’t know what to do. I’ve got nothing for Daddy’s supper, the tiger has eaten it all.”

“They also bought a very big tin of Tiger Food, in case the tiger should come to tea again. But he never did.”

“I know what we’ll do. I’ve got a very good idea. We’ll put on our coats and go to a cafe.”

“Sophie found she couldn’t have her bath because the tiger had drunk all the water in the tap.”

“But the tiger didn’t just take one sandwich. He took all the sandwiches on the plate and swallowed them in one big mouthful. ”

“Thank you for my nice tea. I think I’d better go now.”

“She was very sad. The garden was dark. The house was dark too. Mog sat in the dark and thought dark thoughts. She thought, ‘Nobody likes me. They’ve all gone to bed. There’s no one to let me in. And they haven’t even given me my supper’. “

“Mog was nice but not very clever. She didn’t understand a lot of things. A lot of other things she forgot. She was a very forgetful cat.”

“Debbie had a dream. It was a bad dream. It was a dream about a tiger. The tiger wanted to eat Debbie. It was licking her hair.”

“She meowed her biggest meow, very sudden and very, very loud. The man was surprised He dropped his bag. It made a big noise and everyone in the house woke up.”

“She forgot that she had a cat flap. She wanted to go back into the house, but she couldn’t remember how. In the end she sat outside the kitchen window and meowed until someone let her in.”

“A policeman came and they told him what happened. The policeman looked at Mog. He said, ‘What a remarkable cat. I’ve seen watch-dogs, but never a watch-cat. She will get a medal’. Debbie said, ‘I think she’d rather have an egg’.”

“The garden always made Mog very excited. She smelled all the smells. She chased the birds. She climbed the trees. She ran round and round with a big fluffed-up tail. And then she forgot the cat flap”

“Mog had a medal. She also had an egg every day for breakfast. “

“It was raining in the garden. Mog thought, ‘Perhaps the sun is shining in the street’. When the milkman came she ran out. The milkman shut the door. The sun was not shining in the street after all. It was raining. “

“Mog was very sleepy. She found a nice warm, soft place and went to sleep. She had a lovely dream. Mog dreamed that she had wings. She could fly everywhere. She could fly faster than the birds, even quite big birds...Suddenly she woke up.”

″‘We’ll come back,’ said Papa. ‘I know,’ said Anna. She remembered how she had felt when they had gone back to the Gasthof Zwirn for the holidays and added, ‘But it won’t be the same- we won’t belong. Do you think we’ll ever really belong anywhere?’ ‘I suppose not,’ said Papa.”

″‘It’s another picture of that man,’ said Elsbeth. ‘My little sister saw one yesterday and thought it was Charlie Chaplin.’ Anna looked at the staring eyes, the grim expression. She said, ‘It’s not a bit like Charlie Chaplin except for the mous tache.’ They spelled out the name under the photograph. Adolf Hitler.”

″‘I suppose not,’ said Papa. ‘Not the way people belong who have lived in one place all their lives. But we’ll belong a little in lots of places, and I think that may be just as good.‘”

“For a moment they sat thinking about it, and about what would have happened if they had travelled to Germany.”

″‘I’m Jewish too.’ ‘You’re not!’ ‘I am!’ My father was talking to us about it only last week. He said we were Jews and no matter what happened my brother and I must never forget it.‘”

“Your husband is a wonderful man with a wonderful imagination, but frankly in this matter I think he’s off his head. Never mind, you’ll all have a lovely holiday in Switzerland and when you come back to Berlin in a few weeks time we’ll all go to the Zoo together.”

“It’s been rather like one of those awful plays where people keep rushing in with bad news. And on top of it all there were you, just about to kick the bucket...”

″‘There are Jews scattered all over the world,’ he said, ‘and the Nazis are telling terrible lies about them. So it’s very important for people like us to prove them wrong.’ ‘How can we?’ asked Max. ‘By being better than other people,’ said Papa. For instance, the Nazis say that Jews are dishonest. So it’s not enough for us to be as honest as anyone else. We have to be more honest.‘”

“It all seemed so silly. Why couldn’t she and Max and the Zwirns and the German children all play together? Why did they have to have all this business of decisions and taking sides?”

″‘We have to be more hardworking than other people,’ said Papa, ‘to prove that we’re not lazy, more generous to prove that we’re not mean, more polite to prove that we’re not rude.‘”