make-believe Quotes

“The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and storytellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.”

“Even in the world of make-believe there have to be rules. The parts have to be consistent and belong together.”

“We even make ourselves up, fusing what we are with what we wish into what we must become. I’m not sure why it must be so, but it is. It helps to know this. Thinking about the grandfather I wish I had prepares me for the grandfather I wish to be, a way of using what I am to shape the best that is to come. It is a preparation.”

“The problem is, I can’t tell what real anymore, and what’s made up.”

“Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said: ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’ ‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.‘”

“I don’t think it was a lie, Maxwell, do you? I think he needed something to hope for and so he invented this rather remarkable fantasy you describe. Everybody needs something to hope for. Don’t call it a lie. Kevin wasn’t a liar.”

“There’s no way to know what makes one thing happen and not another. What leads to what. What destroys what. What causes what to flourish or die or take another course.”

“Whatever happens to you belongs to you. Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you, because it will.”

“It’s really splendid to imagine you are a queen. You have all the fun of it without any of the inconveniences and you can stop being queen whenever you want to, which you couldn’t in real life.”

“She was everything real in a world of make-believe. ”

“For Meggie had a plan: She wanted to learn to make up stories like Fenoglio. She wanted to learn to fish for words so that she could read aloud to her mother without worrying about who might come out of the stories and look at her with homesick eyes.”

“UP PUP Pup is up. CUP PUP Pup in cup. PUP CUP Cup on pup.”

“Doesn’t he know? There’s no such thing as a gruffalo!”

“His eyes are orange. His tongue is black. He has prickles all over his back.”

“The attic was a lovely place to play. The large, round, colored pumpkins made beautiful chairs and tables.”

“I don’t care if you believe it. Thats the kind of house I live in. And I hope we never leave it.”

“And that ZELF up on that SHELF! I have talked to him myself.”

“There seems to be no game more beloved of children in all lands and all times than the one called Pretend”

“And I captured the egg of a Grickily Gractus who lays’em high in a prickily cactus.”

“But the YEPS on the STEPS -- They’re great fun to have around. And so are many, many other friends that I have found...”

″ And a FINDOW in my WINDOW. And a NOOK GASE in my BOOK CASE.”

″ Like the TELLER, NELLER, GELLER, DELLER, BELLER, WELLER, ZELLER, CELLER. ”

“All those NUPBOARDS in the CUPBOARDS they’re good fun to have about. But that NOOTH GUSH on my TOOTH BRUSH...Him I could do without.”

“The only one I’m really scared of is that VUG under the RUG.”

“Some of them are very friendly. Like the YOT in the POT.

“With his hair still combed neat four thousand, six hundred and ninety-two feet! Then he’ll land in a fish bowl. He’ll manage just fine. Don’t ask how he’ll manage. That’s his job. Not mine.”

“I could eat a goose-moose burger, fifteen pickles and a purple plum!”

“And now here is a Hoodwink Who winks in his wink-hood. Without a good wink-hood A Hoodwink can’t wink good. And, folks, let me tell you There’s only one circus with wink-hood Hoodwinks! The Circus McGurkus!”

“Again Sneelock! Brave Sneelock is back risking life on the patented Life-Risking-Track while the speedsters I call my Colliding-Collusions race round in swift cars called Abrasion-Contusions and Sneelock just lies there. Not one bit excited I know he won’t mind. He’ll be simply delighted.”

“And so they all played Space Base until sunset.”

“It was Humphrey and Mop’s secret castle. Mop was a king on his throne, with jewels and treasure. It was very cozy...and near Mommy.”

“Nick and Penny did come by, and they all played Store, Pirates, Castle, and, of course, their favorite... Space Base.”

“Mop was in a boat sailing in a sparkly blue sea... but it was a bit dark and quiet. It wasn’t quite right.”

He looks at me and sternly says, “Your eyesight’s much too keen.”

“That can’t be my story. That’s only a start. ”

“A reindeer is better; he’s fast and he’s fleet, and he’d look mighty smart on old Mulberry Street. ”

“An elephant pulling a thing so light would whip it around in the air like a kite. But he’d look simply grand with a great big brass band!”

“Grace was a girl who loved stories. She didn’t mind if they were read to her or told to her or made up from her own head. She didn’t care if they were from books or movies or out of Nana’s long memory. Grace just loved stories.”

“She set out to seek her fortune, with no companion but her trusty cat- and found a city with streets paved in gold.”

″ ‘Make ups are all very well,’ said Papa, ‘as long as people don’t try to make you believe they are true. When they do that, it seems to me it comes too near the edge of falsehood to be very safe or pleasant.’ ”

“At all events, we will make believe that there are fairies in the world. It will not be the last time by many a one that we shall have to make believe. And yet, after all, there is no need for that. There must be fairies; for this is a fairy tale: and how can one have a fairy tale if there are no fairies?”

“Little boy, you are making up stories again. There is nothing in the meadow but grass and trees. Go into the meadow and see for yourself.”

″... Do you see this matchbox? Take it out into the meadow and open it. It will be a tiny dragon. The tiny dragon will grow into a big dragon.”

“Lexie isn’t used to people and she’s got plenty of imagination so she doesn’t miss other children, she makes her playmates of animals or anything.”

“When I was young I told a tale of buried gold, and men from leagues around dug in the woods. I dug myself. But why? I thought the tale of treasure might be true.”

“Let’s broach a puncheon of Jamaica rum. We’ve got a beauty in the Amazon. Let’s go to the harbour and get it. It’s really good stuff. Sometimes our cook is quite friendly, for a native. She calls it lemonade.”

″‘You must all behave like the cat. Look at that way he’s purring!’ It was quite true. The cat was purring as though nothing were happening, because he knew that the Flood was only a game.”

“They began to wonder if the Ark were really a game, and could almost believe that the Flood was real.”

“They were all rather big pearls, but no one really minds a pearl being big, and soon the pearl-divers had a pile of wet and shining jewels by the water-side. The worst of it was that as soon as the stones were dry- and they dried quickly in the sun- they stopped shining, and could not be counted as pearls anymore.”

“Shall I go off to South America? Shall I put out in my ship to sea? Or get in my cage and be lions and tigers? Or- shall I be only Me?”

“I’ll play a game of make-believe and use my magic powers!”

“What happens when she reveals her secret, how she is involved with plots about which she never guessed, and how she is helped and befriended by some of the delightful characters who come into earlier books..”

″‘Tom Sawyer, the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main. Name your names.’ ‘Huck Finn the Red-Handed, and Joe Harper the Terror of the Seas.‘”

“I’d a good deal rather be a pirate, now that I’ve tried it.”

″‘Why, it’s real bully, Tom. I believe it’s better’n to be a pirate.’ ‘Yes, it’s better in some ways, because it’s close to home and circuses and all that.‘”