William Steig Quotes

“But he couldn’t talk. He had no voice. He was stone-dumb.”

“Night followed day and day followed night over and over again. Sylvester on the hill woke up less and less often. When he was awake, he was only hopeless and unhappy.”

“One day in May, Mr. Duncan insisted that his wife go with him on a picnic. ‘Let’s cheer up,’ he said. ‘Let us try to live again and be happy even though Sylvester, our angel, is no longer with us.’ ”

“He was frightened. If he hadn’t been so frightened, he could have made the lion disappear, or he could have wished himself at home with his father and mother. He could have wished the lion would turn into a butterfly or daisy or a gnat. He could have wished many things, but he panicked and couldn’t think carefully. ‘I wish I were a rock,’ he said, and he became a rock.”

“Mrs. Duncan sat down on the rock. The warmth of his own mother sitting on him woke Sylvester up from his deep winter sleep.”

“Mr. Duncan put the magic pebble in an iron safe. Some day they might want to use it, but really, for now, what more could they wish for? They all had all that they wanted.”

″ ‘What a lucky day this is!’ thought Sylvester. ‘From now on I can have everything I want. My father and mother can have anything they want. My relatives, my friends, and anybody at all can have everything anybody wants!’ ”

“Suddenly Mr. Duncan saw the red pebble. ‘What a fantastic pebble!’ he exclaimed. ‘Sylvester would have loved it for his collection.’ He put the pebble on the rock.”

“His thoughts began to race like mad. He was scared and worried. Being helpless, he felt hopeless. He imagined all the possibilities, and eventually he realized that his only chance of becoming himself again was for someone to find the red pebble and to wish that the rock next to it would be a donkey.”

“They tried their best to be happy, to go about their usual ways. But their usual ways included Sylvester and they were always reminded of him. They were miserable. Life had no meaning for them any more.”

“Amos, a mouse, lived by the ocean. He loved the ocean. He loved the smell of sea air. He loved to hear the surf sounds- the bursting breakers, the backwashes with rolling pebbles. He thought a lot about the ocean, and he wondered about the faraway places on the other side of the water.”

“The Rodent, for that was the boat’s name, proved to be very well made and very well suited to the sea. And Amos, after one miserable day of seasickness, proved to be a natural sailor, very well suited to the ship.”

“He was enjoying his trip immensely. It was beautiful weather. Day and night he moved up and down, up and down, on waves as big as mountains, and he was full of wonder, full of enterprise, and full of love for life.”

“Amos, a little speck of a living thing in the vast living universe, felt thoroughly akin to it all. Overwhelmed by the beauty and mystery of everything, he rolled over and over and right off the deck of his boat and into the sea.

“He decided to just keep afloat, treading water and hoping that something- who knows what? – would turn up to save him. But what if a shark, or some big fish, a horse mackerel, turned up? What was he supposed to do to protect himself? He didn’t know.”

“Just as Amos had once felt, all alone in the middle of the ocean, Boris felt now, lying alone on the shore. He was sure he would die. And just as he was preparing to die, Amos came racing back with two of the biggest elephants he could find.”

“...a huge head burst through the surface of the water and loomed up over him. It was a whale. ‘What sort of fish are you?’ the whale asked. ‘You must be one of a kind!’ ‘I’m not a fish,’ said Amos. ‘I’m a mouse, which is a mammal, the highest form of life. I live on land.’ ‘Holy clam and cuttlefish!’ said the whale. ‘I’m a mammal myself, though I live in the sea. Call me Boris,’ he added.”

“ ‘Are you sure you’re a mammal?’ Amos asked. ‘You smell more like a fish.’ Then Boris the whale went swimming along, with Amos the mouse on his back.”

“Swimming along, sometimes at great speed, sometimes slowly and leisurely, sometimes resting and exchanging ideas, sometimes stopping to sleep, it took them a week to reach Amos’s home shore. During that time, they developed a deep admiration for one another. Boris admired the delicacy, the quivering daintiness, the light touch, the small voice, the gemlike radiance of the mouse. Amos admired the bulk, the grandeur, the power, the purpose, the rich voice, and the abounding friendliness of the whale.”

“They became the closest possible friends. They told each other about their lives, their ambitions. They shared their deepest secrets with each other. The whale was very curious about life on land and was very sorry that he could never experience it. Amos was fascinated by the whale’s accounts of what went on deep under the sea.”

“ “I wish we could be friends forever,’ said Boris. ‘We will be friends forever, but we can’t be together. You must live on and I must live at sea. I’ll never forget you, though.’ “

“ ‘I will always be grateful to you for saving my life and I want you to remember that if you ever need my help I’d be more than glad to give it!’ How he could ever possibly help Boris, Amos didn’t know, but he knew how willing he was.”

“He looked back at Amos on the elephant’s head. Tears were rolling down the great whale’s cheeks. The tiny mouse had tears in his eyes too. ‘Goodbye, dear friend,’ squeaked Amos. ‘Goodbye, dear friend,’ rumbled Boris, and he disappeared in the waves. They knew they might never meet again. They knew they would never forget each other.”

“Doctor De Soto, the dentist, did very good work, so he had no end of patients. Those close to his own size – moles, chipmunks, et cetera – sat in the regular dentist’s chair. Larger animals sat on the floor while Doctor De Soto stood on a ladder.”

“Doctor De Soto was especially popular with the big animals. He was able to work inside their mouths, wearing rubbers to keep his feet dry, and his fingers were so delicate, and his drill so dainty, they could hardly feel any pain.”

“Doctor De Soto climbed up the ladder and bravely entered the fox’s mouth. ‘Ooo-wow!’ he gasped. The fox had a rotten bicuspid and unusually bad breath. ‘This tooth will have to come out,’ Doctor De Soto announced. ‘But we can make you a new one.’ “

“Despite his misery, he realized he had a tasty morsel in his mouth, and his jaw began to quiver. ‘Keep open!’ yelled Doctor De Soto. ‘Wide open!’ yelled his wife.”

“The fox, still woozy, said goodbye and left. On his way home, he wondered if it would be shabby of him to eat the De Sotos when the job was done.”

“That night the De Sotos lay awake worrying. ‘Should we let him in tomorrow?’ Mrs. De Soto wondered. ‘Once I start a job,’ said the dentist firmly, ‘I finish it. My father was the same way.’ “

“The next morning, promptly at eleven, a very cheerful fox turned up. He was feeling not a particle of pain.”

“Doctor De Soto set the gold tooth in its socket and hooked it up to the teeth on both sides. The fox caressed the new tooth with his tongue. ‘My, it feels good,’ he thought. ‘I really shouldn’t eat them. On the other hand, how can I resist?’ “

“Doctor De Soto stepped into the foxes mouth with a bucket of secret formula and proceeded to paint each tooth. He hummed as he worked. Mrs. De Soto stood by on the ladder, pointing out spots he had missed. He fox looked very happy.”

“The fox was stunned. He stared at Doctor De Soto, then at his wife. They smiled and waited. All he could do was say, ‘Frank oo berry mush’ through his clenched teeth, and get up and leave. He tried to do so with dignity.”

“He was able to love them again, but he loved them now in a wiser way, knowing their weakness.”

“Why had he wanted to be rich, or to feel rich? Was he an unhappy mouse before? Didn’t he see the King himself often looking sad? Was anyone completely happy?”

“I’m always careful. I check, I double-check, and I re-double-check. Sometimes my mind may wander, but my eyes are always wide open.”

“How could the whole community, Gawain’s friends, turn against him? Even if he were guilty, were they not still his friends?”

“He wished he could go back in time to the turning point, the moment inside the treasury when he was smitten with envy of the King’s wealth. If history could be unwound and he were there again, he would consider the consequences and he wouldn’t steal.”

“Before starting to work for Gawain, Derek secretly cemented the chink in the floor of the treasury. It wasn’t really necessary, but it made him feel better. He felt it put an end to the whole episode- the theft, the trial, its aftermath.”

“Gawain made Derek his assistant, and got to work at once on his first project- a new opera house, for which he decided to use his favorite form, the egg.”

“Being Chief Guard of the newly built Royal Treasury made him an important goose, but the job bored him. Then why had he accepted it?”

“He had been chosen for the post by King Basil the bear because of his upright, trustworthy character, and he accepted because he couldn’t possibly have refused. He loved the rough, gruff, fatherly King.”

“When the tourists had moved on, Gawain found himself wishing for his old way of life- swimming in his pond, tilling his bed of herbs, raising prize cabbages and string beans, and drafting plans for strikingly original buildings.”