Pamela Dean Quotes

Pamela Dean offers playful, imaginative takes on choice, reality, and the creative mind.

8 quotes

1. 'Steph thinks you can wear makeup and still find Narnia.' 'Well, so do I, but why make things harder?'

2. Look," said Janet, irritated, "if the thing you liked best to do in the world was read, and somebody offered to pay you room and board and give you a liberal arts degree if you would just read for four years, wouldn't you do it?

3. It did occur to me that the effect of good literature may be as dizzying as that of alcohol.

4. Why do all your friends talk like books?

5. “I was testing a hypothesis. But it was right, and then I had a unicorn to deal with. You can't just say, 'Thank you so much, go away now' to a unicorn, the way you can with atomic particles.”

6. “At the moment, if you asked me, I would say that this book is about keeping the heart of flesh in a world that wants to put in a heart of stone; and about how, regardless of the accusations regularly flung at them from all quarters, learning and literature can help their adherents accomplish that.”

7. “So he decided he would never listen to anybody he knew? That's just like someone in a fairy tale.' Knowing he had given his trust amiss, how could he bestow it again?' That's foolish. Did he expect never to make any mistakes?”

8. “Do you want some of this cheese, or shall we just go walking?”