J. R. R. Tolkien

Quotes

• “I must say the enclosed letter from Rütten and Loening is a bit stiff. Do I suffer this impertinence because of the poss...”
• “I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is p...”
• “For myself I would say that more than the interest and uses of the study of Welsh as an adminicle of English philology, ...”
• “I am in fact a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees, and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like goo...”
• “The basic pleasure in the phonetic elements of a language and in the style of their patterns, and then in a higher dimen...”
• “Most English-speaking people … will admit that cellar door is "beautiful," especially if dissociated from its sense (and...”
• “As for what you say or hint of 'local' conditions: I knew of them. I don't think they have much changed (even for the wo...”
• “The paradoxical thing is that Tolkien, now a mass phenomenon, was a niche writer: he wrote by hand and did the illustrat...”
• “I should say that, in addition to my tree-love (it was originally called The Tree), it arose from my own pre-occupation ...”
• “The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift also conceived of magic that would make heavy things l...”
• “Nothing has astonished me more (and I think my publishers) than the welcome given to The Lord of the Rings. But it is, o...”
• “I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighbourhood, ...”
• “It was just as the 1914 War burst on me that I made the discovery that 'legends' depend on the language to which they be...”
• “The unpayable debt that I owe to him C. S. Lewis was not "influence" as it is ordinarily understood, but sheer encourage...”
• “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but conscious...”
• “My political opinions lean more and more to Anarchy (philosophically understood, meaning abolition of control not whiske...”
• “To many, perhaps to most people outside the small company of the great scholars, past and present, 'Celtic' of any sort ...”
• “The story-maker proves a successful 'sub-creator'. He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what...”
• “I picture a fairly human figure, not a kind of 'fairy' rabbit as some of my British reviewers seem to fancy: fattish in ...”
• “That story was the only thing I have ever done which cost me absolutely no pains at all. Usually I compose only with gre...”
• “It is impossible for an author still writing to be fair to another author working along the same lines. At least I find ...”
• “Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more Perfect world, or eve...”
• “Years later, in an incomplete draft of a letter (1956; quoted more extensively below) he stated that Esperanto and other...”
• “His standard of self criticism was high and the mere suggestion of publication usually set him upon a revision, in the c...”
• “One of two draft letters (25 July, 1938) written for Stanley Unwin to select as a response to his German publishers inqu...”
• “Though all the crannies of the world we filled with elves and goblins, though we dared to build gods and their houses ou...”
• “And lastly there is the oldest and deepest desire, the Great Escape: the Escape from Death. Fairy-stories provide many e...”
• “There was once a little man called Niggle, who had a long journey to make. He did not want to go, indeed the whole idea ...”
• “It's one reason I adore Tolkien; he always tells you what the weather is, always. And you know pretty well where north i...”
• “He was a great philologist and had edited the critical edition of Beowulf. In short, he was a remarkable scholar who sud...”
• “You can make the Ring an allegory of our own time, if you like: an allegory of the inevitable fate that awaits all attem...”
• “All wishes are not idle, nor in vain fulfilment we devise - for pain is pain, not for itself to be desired, but ill; or ...”
• “Leaf by Niggle" ends as a comedy, even as a "divine comedy," on more levels than one. But while it looks forward to "div...”
• “There was one picture in particular which bothered him. It had begun with a leaf caught in the wind, and it became a tre...”
• “If you really come down to any large story that interests people - holds the attention for a considerable time ... human...”
• “René van Rossenberg, "Tolkien's Exceptional Visit to Holland: A Reconstruction", Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, ...”
• “[M]y friend Professor Tolkien asked me the very simple question, 'What class of men would you expect to be most preoccup...”
• “Referring to Gollum. From J. R. R. Tolkien: An Audio Portrait, BBC Radio Collection (2001), . CD 1, track 17. Originally...”
• “No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philologi...”
• “Originally from the 1964 interview with Denys Gueroult, first broadcast in 1971. Excerpted in J. R. R. Tolkien: An Audio...”
• “The heart of man is not compound of lies, but draws some wisdom from the only Wise, and still recalls him. Though now lo...”
• “Trees are not 'trees', until so named and seen - and never were so named, till those had been who speech's involuted bre...”
• “I think we shall have to give the region a name. What do you propose?" "The Porter settled that some time ago," said the...”
• “Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made...”
• “Word-making is one of the roots of fantasy. It reaches its peak in Tolkien, who said he wrote The Lord of the Rings so t...”
• “It gives me great pleasure, a good name. I always in writing start with a name. Give me a name and it produces a story, ...”
• “My advice to all who have the time or inclination to concern themselves with the international language movement would b...”
• “Speaking about the same scene he wrote about in his January 1945 letter to Christopher, and would later call 'most tragi...”
• “Thomas Shippey, on Tolkien's autobiographical allegorical tale "Leaf by Niggle," in J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Cent...”
• “In March 1958 he said writing this made him weep and a September 1963 letter would later reference this scene as the "mo...”