Charles de Lint's Quotes

When all's said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it's not so much which road you take, as how you take it.

I've always known and been interested in people who are a little bit off the norm. I like to call attention to the idea that they are there, that they are real people, not invisible.

Often the magical elements in my books are standing in for elements of the real world, the small and magical-in-their-own-right sorts of things that we take for granted and no longer pay attention to, like the bonds of friendship that entwine our own lives with those of other people and places.

When one of my characters becomes aware of a magical element, it might be because the world is wider than we assume it to be, but it might also be a reminder to pay attention to what is here already, hidden only because it's been forgotten.

The beginning of a friendship, the fact that two people out of the thousands around them can meet and connect and become friends, seems like a kind of magic to me. But maintaining a friendship requires work. I don't mean that as a bad thing. Good art requires work as well.

Stone walls confine a tinker; cold iron binds a witch; but a musician's music can never be fettered, for it lives first in her heart and mind.

Why did men worship in churches, locking themselves away in the dark, when the world lay beyond its doors in all its real glory?

I want to touch the heart of the world and make it smile.

Life is like art. You have to work hard to keep it simple and still have meaning.

Not everything has to mean something. Some things just are.

One expected growth, change; without it, the world was less, the well of inspiration dried up, the muses fled.

A long time ago a bunch of people reached a general consensus as to what's real and what's not and most of us have been going along with it ever since.

The thing with pretending you're in a good mood is that sometimes you can.

The best artists know what to leave out.

Without mysteries, life would be very dull indeed. What would be left to strive for if everything were known?

Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.

The problem with children is that you have to put up with their parents.

The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it.

Witchery is merely a word for what we are all capable of.

As far as I'm concerned, the only difference between fact and what most people call fiction is about fifteen pages in the dictionary.

I think you're all mad. But that's part and parcel of being an artistic genius, isn't it?

I'm not Chinese. I thrive in interesting times.

I've always been interested in the outsider.