Quote #3

A great friend of mine at the beginning of our friendship (he was himself a poet) said to me very defiantly, 'I have to tell you that I loathe children's books.' And I said to him, 'Well, won't you just read this just for my sake?' And he said grumpily, 'Oh, very well, send it to me.' I did, and I got a letter back saying: 'Why didn't you tell me? Mary Poppins with her cool green core of sex has me enthralled forever.'

More from P. L. Travers

  1. A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.
  2. The silky hush of intimate things, fragrant with my fragrance, steal softly down, so loth to rob me of my last dear concealment.
  3. It is clear from Gurdjieff's writings that hypnotism, mesmerism and various arcane methods of expanding consciousness must have played a la…
  4. The Irish, as a race, have the oral tradition in their blood. A direct question to them is an anathema, but in other cases, a mere syllable…
  5. You do not chop off a section of your imaginative substance and make a book specifically for children, for - if you are honest - you have n…
  6. You can ask me anything you like about my work, but I'll never talk about myself.
  7. For me there are no answers, only questions, and I am grateful that the questions go on and on. I don't look for an answer, because I don't…
  8. If you want to find Cherry-Tree Lane all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the cross-roads. He will push his helmet slightly to one si…

All P. L. Travers quotes