Quotes by Hans Christian Andersen

About Hans Christian Andersen:

Hans Christian Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories, called eventyr in Danish or "fairy-tales" in English, express themes that transcend age and nationality.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of lands remote, To travel is to live.

Hans Christian Andersen

To travel is to live.

Hans Christian Andersen

My life will be the best illustration of all my work.

Hans Christian Andersen

Grant not my prayers, when they are contrary to Thy will, which at all times must be the best. Oh, hear them not;

Hans Christian Andersen

Never had she danced so beautifully; the sharp knives cut her feet, but she did not feel it, for the pain in her heart was far greater.

Hans Christian Andersen

Then your tail will divide and shrink until it becomes what the people on earth call a pair of shapely legs. But it will hurt; it will feel as if a sharp sword slashed through you. Everyone who sees you will say that you are the most graceful human b...

Hans Christian Andersen

But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.

Hans Christian Andersen

Death walks faster than the wind and never returns what he has taken.

Hans Christian Andersen

The lives great artists live and the books they write are two very different things.

Hans Christian Andersen

Maybe – let’s not rule it out – this will be the song that cuts clean, the one that matters, the one that sheds standard-issue romance and reveals, under its old skin, a raw blood-red devotion deeper than comfort, a desire profounder than schoo...

Hans Christian Andersen

Tyler. His handsome, lion-eyed ravagement. His capacity for devotion. Which is so sexy. Why do so many gay men lack that? Why are they so distracted, so in love with the idea of more and more and then more, again?

Hans Christian Andersen

(From the Author Note at the beginning of the book.) Dorothy L. Sayers used to say that mystery stories were the only moral fiction of the modern world--because in a mystery, you were guaranteed to see that the bad got punished, the good got rewarded...

Hans Christian Andersen

It’s better, really, to go out in a blaze. That’s why we love Marilyn, and James Dean. We love the ones who walk right into the fire.

Hans Christian Andersen

Barrett is a bigger guy, not fat (not yet) but ursine, crimson of eye and lip; ginger-furred, possessed (he likes to think) of an enchanted sensual slyness, the prince transformed into wolf or lion, all slumbering large-pawed docility, awaiting, with...

Hans Christian Andersen

We worship numberless gods or idols, but we all need to be the grandest possible versions of ourselves, we need to walk across the face of the earth with as much grace and beauty as we can muster before we’re wrapped in our winding sheets, and retu...

Hans Christian Andersen

A celestial light appeared to Barrett Meeks in the sky over Central Park, four days after Barrett had been mauled, once again, by love.

Hans Christian Andersen

Here's the sting of livingness. He's back after his nightly voyage of sleep, all clarity and purpose; he's renewed his citizenship in the world of people who strive and connect, people who mean business, people who burn and want, who remember everyth...

Hans Christian Andersen

You know, if you're hopeful, if you're even a little bit happy about something that might happen, it doesn't affect the outcome. You could still give yourself a period of optimism, even if it all falls apart.

Hans Christian Andersen

I can give her no greater power than she has already, said the woman; don't you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her, and how well she has got through the world, barefooted as she is. She cannot receive any power from ...

Hans Christian Andersen

Then little Gerda said the Lord's Prayer; the cold was so intense that she could see her own breath; it came out of her mouth like smoke. Her breath became thicker and thicker, and took the form of little angels who grew larger and larger as soon as ...

Hans Christian Andersen

Author Bio

  • NameHans Christian Andersen
  • DescriptionDanish author, fairy tale writer, and poet
  • AliasesAuthor of The improvisatore,
  • BornApril 2, 1805
  • DiedAugust 4, 1875
  • CountryDenmark
  • ProfessionWriter; Poet; Novelist; Children's Writer; Autobiographer; Playwright
  • AwardsOrder Of The Red Eagle 3rd Class; Prometheus Award - Hall Of Fame