Quotes by Tove Jansson

About Tove Jansson:

Tove Marika Jansson was a Swedish-speaking Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. For her contribution as a children's writer she received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1966.
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

The garnets,' Sniff moaned. 'I didn't get a single one.' Snufkin sat down beside him and said kindly: 'I know. But that's how it is when you start wanting to things. Now just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are...

Tove Jansson

It is simply this: do not tire, never lose interest, never grow indifferent—lose your invaluable curiosity and you let yourself die. It's as simple as that.

Tove Jansson

But she wasn't a wife and mother. And, Joey aside, she didn't want to be one. Her mother had spend every last minute cooking for Papa, cleaning for Papa, looking nice for Papa, entertaining for Papa, producing babies for Papa. The measuring stick she...

Tove Jansson

A very long time ago, Grandmother had wanted to tell about all the things they did, but no one had bothered to ask. And now she had lost the urge.

Tove Jansson

Grandmother walked up over the bare granite and thought about birds in general. It seemed to her no other creature had the same dramatic capacity to underline and perfect events -- the shifts in the seasons and the weather, the changes that run throu...

Tove Jansson

Small animals are a great problem. I wish God had never created small animals, or else that He had made them so they could talk, or else that He'd given them better faces. Space. Take moths. They fly at the lamp and burn themsleves, and then they fly...

Tove Jansson

She started thinking about all the euphemisms for death, all the anxious taboos that had always fascinated her. It was too bad you could never have an intelligent discussion on the subject. People were either too young or too old, or else they didn't...

Tove Jansson

Now everything was changed. She walked about with cautious, anxious steps, staring constantly at the ground, on the lookout for things that crept and crawled. Bushes were dangerous, and so were sea grass and rain water. There were little animals ever...

Tove Jansson

No well-bred person goes ashore on someone else's island when there's no one home. But if they put up a sign, then you do it anyway, because it's a slap in the face

Tove Jansson

a person can also find solitude with others, though it is more difficult

Tove Jansson

For a while she considered being ill, but she changed her mind...

Tove Jansson

Malander had an idea and was trying to work it out, but it would take him time. Sometimes people never saw things clearly until it was too late and they no longer had the strength to start again. Or else they forgot their idea along the way and didn'...

Tove Jansson

I know I do everything. I've been doing everything for an awfully long time, and I've seen and lived as hard as I could, and it's been unbelievable, I tell you, unbelievable. But now I have the feeling everything is gliding away from me, and I don't ...

Tove Jansson

Sophia and Grandmother sat down by the shore to discuss the matter further. It was a pretty day, and the sea was running a long, windless swell. It was on days just like this--dog days--that boats went sailing off all by themselves. Large, alien obje...

Tove Jansson

And all you can do is just read," she said. She raised her voice an screamed, "You just read and read and read!" Then she threw herself down on the table and wept.

Tove Jansson

Everyone must imagine his own snakes because no one else's snakes can ever be as awful.

Tove Jansson

Most of the people are homesick anyway, and a little lonely, and they hide themselves in their hair and are turned into flowers

Tove Jansson

Najednou se muminka zmocnila taková radost, že se musel odebrat do samoty. Okdráčel pomalu ke kůlně. A když ho nikdo neviděl, dal se do běhu. Běžel v roztálém sněhu, slunce se mu opíralo do zad a on běžel a běžel, protože byl šť...

Tove Jansson

I cannot stress enough the perils of your friends marrying or becoming court inventors. One day you are all a society of outlaws, adventurous comrades and companions who will be pushing off somewhere or other when things become tiresome; you have all...

Tove Jansson

Quite, quite,' she thought with a little sigh. 'It's always like this in their adventures. To save and be saved. I wish somebody would write a story sometime about the people who warm up the heroes afterward.

Tove Jansson

Author Bio

  • NameTove Jansson
  • DescriptionFinnish children's writer and illustrator
  • BornAugust 9, 1914
  • DiedJune 27, 2001
  • CountryFinland
  • ProfessionPainter; Writer; Illustrator; Children's Writer
  • WorksMoomin
  • AwardsSelma Lagerlöf Prize; Hans Christian Andersen Award