Pierre Gripari Quotes

After Monsieur Pierre runs out of stories to tell the children living in Rue Broca, he proposes that they meet every week and invent one together.

“One day a certain Monsieur Pierre appears there, the Rue Broca, a most unusual Paris street. The children know that he is a witch in disguise.”

“When at last Monsieur Pierre runs out of stories to tell them, he makes the children an offer: they will all meet and make up new stories together, and perhaps one day publish them in a book.”

“They are tart, amusing and charming, if now and then a touch irreverent. They are modern folk tales with a twist: the devil is good-natured, a sultan falls in love with a potato, and a king sends his love-struck son by jet to Moscow.”

“Once upon a time there lived a Mama God and her son, little God. One evening Mama God settled herself in a wide armchair and was darning socks while little God, sitting at a big table, was finishing his homework.”

“Papa Said, who alse felt that time was pressing, took out the long knife he used for cutting bananas. The sun sized it and, without any hesitation, drove it into the little pig’s back, making a large gash.”

“Once upon a time there was a pair of shoes who were married to each other. The right shoe was the husband and his name was Nicholas; the left shoe was the wife and her name was Tina. They lived in a lovely cardboard box where they were rolled up together in tissue paper, blissfully happy and hoping their life there would last forever.”

“And that is how it came to pass that Nicholas and Tina, for the first time in their lives, did not see each other for the whole day. Only at night, in the dark closet, did they meet again.”

“The following day, the lady wasn’t able to take more than three steps without her right foot twisting to the left, and each time it happened -splat!- she landed on the ground.”

“These shoes are hexed! she thought. I will never again wear them. I am going to give them to my niece, who has a problem with one of her feet. That is precisely what she did.”