Alan Garner Quotes

She wants to be flowers, but you make her owls. You must not complain, then, if she goes hunting.

Alan Garner

Flower, Hunting, Owl

49 Copy quote
The job of a storyteller is to speak the truth. But what we feel most deeply can’t be spoken in words alone. At this level, only images connect. And here, story becomes symbol; symbol is myth. And myth is truth.

Alan Garner

Jobs, Stories, Levels

9 Copy quote
I wish Monkeys could Skype. Maybe one day.

Alan Garner

Wish, One Day, Monkeys

8 Copy quote
Im not supposed to be within two hundred feet of a school or a Chuck E. Cheese.

Alan Garner

Hangover, School, Chuck E Cheese

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Hitting the gym to release stress is not nearly as effective as hitting the people that cause the stress to begin with.

Alan Garner

Stress, People, Causes

4 Copy quote
If you are going to write, nothing will stop you, and if you are not going to write, nothing will make you.

Alan Garner

Writing, Ifs

Interview with Sarah Kinson, www.theguardian.com. May 17, 2007.

4 Copy quote
Possessive parents rarely live long enough to see the fruits of their selfishness.

Alan Garner

Family, Long, Parent

Alan Garner (2013). “The Owl Service”, p.6, HarperCollins UK

4 Copy quote
I love research so much that I do an enormous amount; it helps put off the moment of starting to write the story.

Alan Garner

Writing, Stories, Research

6 Copy quote
My background is deep and set in deep time, and in a narrow space, oral traditions going back a long, long time, which I inherited by osmosis.

Alan Garner

Osmosis, Space, Long

"Alan Garner: a life in books" by Alison Flood, www.theguardian.com. August 17, 2012.

5 Copy quote
Everything I have ever written has been in the same chair, in the same room.

Alan Garner

Rooms, Chairs, Has Beens

Interview with Sarah Kinson, www.theguardian.com. May 17, 2007.

6 Copy quote
My great-grandfather was a self-taught man, and his library was extraordinary. I read the lot.

Alan Garner

Men, Self, Grandfather

Interview with Sarah Kinson, www.theguardian.com. May 17, 2007.

4 Copy quote
I'll buy metaphor, but simile's a cop-out used by scaredycats who won't commit to anything. Simile's for cowards.

Alan Garner

Coward, Cop, Metaphor

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When you start, the world of publishing seems like a great cathedral citadel of talent, resisting attempts to let you inside. It isn't like that at all. It may be more difficult now, and take longer than when I started to write, but there's a great, empty warehouse out there looking for simple talent.

Alan Garner

Writing, Simple, World

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It's where I keep all my things. Get a lot of compliments on this. Plus it's not a purse, it's called a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one.

Alan Garner

Hangover, Indiana, Purses

7 Copy quote
Ive learned never to try and force words to come.

Alan Garner

Trying, Force, Ive Learned

4 Copy quote
I loathe crowds. I especially dont like cities. A city involves biomass. And biomass gets to me.

Alan Garner

Cities, Crowds, Biomass

12 Copy quote
My attitude is that if anybody of any age wants to read a book, let them, but I do think that no child would want to read Boneland.

Alan Garner

Children, Attitude, Book

"Alan Garner: a life in books". Interview with Alison Flood, www.theguardian.com. August 17, 2012.

4 Copy quote
I learnt that I must never finish a book with nothing else to do.

Alan Garner

Book

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... I had never given much credence to the phenomenon of "writer's block". I was more inclined to think of it as "writer's impatience", and to follow Arthur Koestler's dictum: "Soak; and wait.

Alan Garner

Block, Thinking, Waiting

4 Copy quote
When a monkey nibbles on a weenis, it's funny in any language.

Alan Garner

Monkeys, Language

4 Copy quote

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Born: October 17, 1934
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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