The Boy Quotes

“One of them was brown all over, but the other had strange markings under his fur, as though long ago he had been spotted, and the spots still showed through. And about his little soft nose and his round black eyes there was something familiar, so that the Boy thought to himself: ‘Why, he looks just like my old Bunny that was lost when I had scarlet fever!’ But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look at the child who had first helped him to be Real.”

“But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrows the real rabbits lived in.”

“It was a long weary time, for the Boy was too ill to play, and the little Rabbit found it rather dull with nothing to do all day long. But he snuggled down patiently, and looked forward to the time when the Boy should be well again, and they would go out in the garden amongst the flowers and the butterflies and play splendid games in the raspberry thicket like they used to.”

″‘He doesn’t smell right!’ he exclaimed. ‘He isn’t a rabbit at all! He isn’t real!’ ‘I am Real!’ said the little Rabbit. ‘I am Real! The Boy said so!’ And he nearly began to cry.”

“Weeks passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. To him he was always beautiful, and that was all that the little Rabbit cared about. He didn’t mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn’t matter.”

“He took the Velveteen Rabbit with him, and before he wandered off to pick flowers, or play at brigands among the trees, he always made the Rabbit a little nest somewhere among the bracken, where he would be quite cosy, for he was a kind-hearted little boy and he liked Bunny to be comfortable.”

“For at least two hours the Boy loved him, and then Aunts and Uncles came to dinner, and there was a great rustling of tissue paper and unwrapping of parcels, and in the excitement of looking at all the new presents the Velveteen Rabbit was forgotten.”

“And then later in the darkness: [The Boy:] Can I ask you something? [The Man:] Yes. Of course you can. [The Boy:] What would you do if I died? [The Man:] If you died I would want to die too. [The Boy:] So you could be with me? [The Man:] Yes. So I could be with you. [The Boy:] Okay. ”

“Borrowing,” he said after a while. “Is that what you call it?” “What else could you call it?” asked Arrietty. “I’d call it stealing.”

“It was an eye. Or it looked like an eye. Clear and bright like the color of the sky. An eye like her own but enormous. A glaring eye. Breathless with fear, she sat up.”

“Everything they had was borrowed; they had nothing of their own at all. Nothing. In spite of this, my brother said, they were touchy and conceited, and thought they owned the world.”

“And yet”—she looked into the fire—“there was something about him—perhaps because we were brought up in India among mystery and magic and legends—something that made us think that he saw things that other people could not see; sometimes we’d know he was teasing, but at other times—well, we were not so sure…”

“Yes, and he was our little brother. I think that was why”—she thought for a moment, still smiling to herself—“yes, why he told us such impossible stories, such strange imaginings. He was jealous, I think, because we were older—and because we could read better.”

“Arrietty stared up at him. So this was “the boy”! Breathless, she felt, and light with fear.”

“Finally he decides that he’ll give the little boy his yellow car. Tomorrow he’ll be nice to the little boy. Then Alfie falls asleep without paying any more attention to the monster.”

“Alfie makes a couple of trips - to the swings, the sandbox, the tree to the swings, the sandbox, the tree. There’s no little boy. Alfie takes the car home.”

“The next day is Monday. The others are playing soccer again. Alfie doesn’t feel like it. He goes off by himself, looking for the little boy.”

“That’s what really happened. The ball just got lost. It wasn’t the little boy’s fault. And now the little boy has disappeared, too.”

“Alfie sees the little boy all the way over by the parking lot. He is alive! He is all by himself, watching the big boys play.”

“But Alfie doesn’t care about the ball anymore. He is so happy that the little boy is okay. He just wants him to be happy.”

″ ‘That was a great shot’, says the little boy. ‘The best and longest anyone has kicked on our street.’ ‘Do you really think so?’ says Alfie? Now he is happy, too.”

The wolf has lost nearly everything on his journey to the zoo, including an eye and his beloved pack. The boy too has lost much and seen many terrible things.

“One morning his wife went looking for berries, leaving the boy to care for his father. The unhappy old man sat in the sun, thinking of his days as a great hunter.”

“They pulled and they pulled and up came Ping and the Boy on to the house boat.”

“The boy stood on a rock and pointed the arrow at the bear’s heart. ‘Shoot!’ he cried. The old man pulled hard and the arrow flew through the air. It hit its mark and the bear fell dead.”

The boy stays each night until the wolf is asleep and returns before he wakes. One day Africa does something “strange that calms the wolf and makes him feel more at ease. The boy closes an eye.”