P.L. Travers Quotes

“‘Mary Poppins,’ he cried, ‘you’ll never leave us, will you?‘”

“She’s something special, you see. Not in the matter of looks, of course. One of my own day-old chicks is handsomer than Mary P. ever was.”

“If you want to find Cherry-Tree Lane all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the cross-roads.”

“And all the time he was enjoying his badness, hugging it to him as though it were a friend, and not caring a bit.”

“Well, au revoir, one and all.”

“‘A very old-fashioned idea, to my mind,’ Jane and Michael heard the stern voice say. ‘Very old-fashioned. Quite out of date, as you might say.‘”

“I hate being good.”

“The same substance composes us--the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star--we are all one, all moving to the same end.”

“Mary Poppins walked down the garden path and opened the gate. Once outside in the Lane, she set off walking very quickly as if she were afraid the afternoon would run away from her if she didn’t keep up with it. At the corner she turned to the right and then to the left, nodded haughtily to the Policeman, who said it was a nice day, and by that time she felt that her Day Out had begun.”

“Mary Poppins sighed with pleasure, however, when she saw three of herself, each wearing a blue coat with silver buttons and a blue hat to match. She thought it was such a lovely sight that she wished there had been a dozen of her or even thirty. The more Mary Poppins the better.”

“There they were, all together, up in the air.”

“This is your new nurse, Mary Poppins.”

“He knew, the moment he opened his eyes, that something was wrong but he was not quite sure what it was.”

“You must be very old!” said Jane.”

“Mary Poppins was very vain and liked to look her best. Indeed, she was quite sure that she never looked anything else.”

“‘Don’t you know,’ she said pityingly, ‘that everybody’s got a Fairyland of their own?‘”

“Michael knew now what was happening to him. He knew he was going to be naughty.”

“She’s saying it! She’s saying it!” cried Jane, holding tight to herself for fear she would break in two with delight. And she was saying it. The Bird Woman was there and she was saying it. “Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag! Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag! Feed the Birds, Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag, Tuppence a Bag!”

“Mary Poppins never told anybody anything. . . .”

“He could smell her crackling white apron and the faint flavour of toast that always hung about her so deliciously.”

“She paused, as though she were remembering events that happened hundreds of years before that time.”

“She wore so many brooches and necklaces and earrings that she jingled and jangled just like a brass band.”

“I’ll stay till the wind changes.”

“So it was settled.”

“The Dolphins were after it in a second, two dark striving shapes rippling through the water. Jane and Michael could hardly breathe. Which would win the prize? Or would the prize escape?”