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I Came To Fantasy Fairly Late. For Some Ten Years, I Had Been Happily Writing Fiction And Non-fiction For Adults. But I Always Loved Fantasy, Whether For Adults Or Young People; And At That Particular Point In My Life, I Wanted To Try It, To Understand It, As Part Of The Process Of Learning To Be A Writer. The Results Were Beyond Anything I Could Have Foreseen. As I've Said Often And Elsewhere, It Was The Most Creative And Liberating Experience Of My Life.

-Lloyd Alexander

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I Came To Fantasy

Lloyd Alexander

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I Came To Fantasy Fairly Late. For Some Ten Years, I Had Been Happily Writing Fiction And Non-fiction For Adults. But I Always Loved Fantasy, Whether For Adults Or Young People; And At That Particular Point In My Life, I Wanted To Try It, To Understand It, As Part Of The Process Of Learning To Be A Writer. The Results Were Beyond Anything I Could Have Foreseen. As I've Said Often And Elsewhere, It Was The Most Creative And Liberating Experience Of My Life.

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I Loved All The World's Mythologies.

The Dear Girl, I Fear, May Be Contemplating Some Alarming, Disruptive Perhaps Dangerous Project. In Which Case, I Would Naturally Do All In My Power To Keep Her From Any Such Rash Or Foolhardy Enterprise – Unless She Wished Me To Accompany Her.

Behind One Truth There Is Always Yet Another.

If Life Is A Loom, The Pattern You Weave Is Not So Easily Unraveled.

My Parents Were Horrified When I Told Them I Wanted To Be An Author.

Child, Child, Do You Not See? For Each Of Us Comes A Time When We Must Be More Than What We Are.

Draw Dyrnwyn, Only Thou Of Noble Worth, To Rule With Justice, To Strike Down Evil. Who Wields It In Good Cause Shall Slay Even The Lord Of Death.

Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, And So Many Others Were My Dearest Friends And Greatest Teachers.

-i'm Trying To Make Myself Invisible. -that's An Odd Thing To Attempt.

The Destinies Of Men Are Woven One With The Other, And You Can Turn Aside From Them No More Than You Can Turn Aside From Your Own.

No, No," Said Taran Slowly, "it Would Be Folly To Think Of Attacking Them." He Smiled Quickly At Fflewddur. "the Bards Would Sing Of Us," He Admitted, "but We'd Be In No Position To Appreciate It.

A Crown Is A Pitiless Master, Harsher Than The Staff Of A Pig-keeper; While A Staff Bears Up, A Crown Weighs Down, Beyond The Strength Of Any Man To Wear It Lightly.

Find What You Want. I Will Find You.

All That Writers Can Do Is Keep Trying To Say What Is Deepest In Their Hearts.

Evil Cannot Be Conquered By Wishing.

This Much Have I Learned: A Man's Life Weighs More Than Glory, And A Price Paid In Blood Is A Heavy Reckoning.

I Can't Make Sense Out Of That Girl," He Said To The Bard, "can You?" "never Mind," Fflewddur Said, "we Aren't Really Expected To.

Most Of Us Are Called On To Perform Tasks Far Beyond What We Can Do. Our Capabilities Seldom Match Our Aspirations, And We Are Often Woefully Unprepared. To This Extent, We Are All Assistant Pig-keepers At Heart.

If We Nourish Imagination, We Nourish Everything Else.

A Crown Is More Discomfort Than Adornment. If You Have Learned That, You Have Already Learned Much.

For Man To Be Worthy Of Any Rank, He Must Strive First To Be A Man.

It Is Harsh Enough For Each Man To Bear His Own Wound. But He Who Leads Bears The Wounds Of All Who Follow Him.

She Has Given You Something Of Value: The Truth In Her Heart.

I Intend To Follow The Path Of Virtue. It Will Not Be Overcrowded.

Are You Slow-witted? I'm So Sorry For You. It's Terrible To Be Dull And Stupid.

Even In A Fantasy Realm, Growing Up Is Accomplished Not Without Cost.

Miss Vesper Holly Has The Digestive Talents Of A Goat And The Mind Of A Chess Master. She Is Familiar With Half A Dozen Languages And Can Swear Fluently In All Of Them. She Understands The Use Of A Slide Rule But Prefers Doing Calculations In Her Head. She Does Not Hesitate To Risk Life And Limb- Mine As Well As Her Own. No Doubt She Has Other Qualities As Yet Undiscovered. I Hope Not.

-"he Loved Her...it Was Noble Of Him. It Was Beautiful." -"it Was Stupid.

And So They Lived Many Happy Years, And The Promised Tasks Were Accomplished. Yet Long Afterward, When All Had Passed Away Into Distant Memory, There Were Many Who Wondered Whether King Taran, Queen Eilonwy, And Their Companions Had Indeed Walked The Earth, Or Whether They Had Been No More Than Dreams In A Tale Set Down To Beguile Children. And, In Time, Only The Bards Knew The Truth Of It.

Is There Not Glory Enough In Living The Days Given To Us? You Should Know There Is Adventure In Simply Being Among Those We Love And The Things We Love, And Beauty, Too.

The Journey Is The Treasure.

Llonio Said Life Was A Net For Luck; To Hevydd The Smith Life Was A Forge; And To Dwyvach The Weaver-woman A Loom. They Spoke Truly, For It Is All Of These. But You,' Taran Said, His Eyes Meeting The Potter's, 'you Have Shown Me Life Is One Thing More. It Is Clay To Be Shaped, As Raw Clay On A Potter's Wheel.

Story, Finally, Is Humanity's Autobiography.

If A Storyteller Worried About The Facts - My Dear Lucian, How Could He Ever Get At The Truth?

There Is Truth In All Things, If You Understand Them Well.

Is There Worse Evil Than That Which Goes In The Mask Of Good?

If Writers Learn More From Their Books Than Do Readers, Perhaps I May Have Begun To Learn.

I Only Suggest To You: Will You Dwell On Killing This Man? You Wish For Revenge? If You Do, He Has Already Killed You By Slow Poison. So, Let It Go. Why Waste Your Time? His Life Will See To His Death.

Fantasy Is, I Believe, The Great Nourisher Of Imagination. To Paraphrase Einstein On How To Develop Intelligence In Young People: Read Fairy Tales. Then Read More Fairy Tales.

...writings Can Be Stolen, Or Changed, Or Used For Evil Purposes. But Isn't The Risk Worth Taking? The More People Who Share Knowledge, The Greater Safeguard For It. Isn't There More Danger In Ignorance Than Knowledge?

He Will Not Succeed In This," Taran Said. "somehow, We Must Find A Way To Escape. We Dare Not Lose Hope." "i Agree Absolutely," Fflewddur Answered. "your General Idea Is Excellent; It's Only The Details That Are Lacking.

You Know How Chickens Are, Imagining The World Coming To An End One Moment, Then Pecking Corn The Next.

It Was 1943. The U.s. Had Already Entered World War Ii, So I Decided To Join The Army.

Go Back' Taran Shouted At The Top Of His Voice.'have You Lost Your Wits?' Eilonwy, For It Was She, Half-halted. She Had Tucked Her Plaited Hair Under A Leather Helmet. The Princess Of Llyr Smiled Cheerfully At Him. 'i Understand You're Upset,' She Shouted Back, 'but That's No Cause To Be Rude.' She Galloped On. For A Time, Taran Could Not Believe He Had Really Seen Her.

At The End Of Knowledge, Wisdom Begins, And At The End Of Wisdom, There Is Not Grief...but Hope

Knowledge Wisdom

We Learn More By Looking For The Answer To A Question And Not Finding It Than We Do From Learning The Answer Itself.

Long Ago I Yearned To Be A Hero Without Knowing, In Truth, What A Hero Was. Now, Perhaps, I Understand It A Little Better. A Grower Of Turnips Or A Shaper Of Clay, A Commot Farmer Or A King--every Man Is A Hero If He Strives More For Others Than For Himself Alone. Once You Told Me That The Seeking Counts More Than The Finding. So, Too, Must The Striving Count More Than The Gain.

The Point Is Not To Look Back, But To Look Ahead To What You Hope Still To Do.

The Muse In Charge Of Fantasy Wears Good, Sensible Shoes. No Foam-born Aphrodite, She Vaguely Resembles My Old Piano Teacher, Who Was Keen On Metronomes.

I Saw Myself. . . In The Time I Watched, I Saw Strength And Frailty, Pride And Vanity, Courage And Fear. Of Wisdom, A Little. Of Folly Much. Of Intentions Many Good Ones; But Many More Left Undone. On This Alas, I Saw Myself A Man Like Any Other. But This Too I Saw . . . Alike As Men May Seem, Each Is Different As Flakes Of Snow, No Two The Same.you Told Me You Had No Need To Seek The Mirror, Knowing You Were Annlaw Clay-shaper. Now I Know Who I Am: Myself And None Other. I Am Taran.

Hope Is An Essential Thread In The Fabric Of All Fantasies, An Ariadne's Thread To Guide Us Out Of The Labyrinth ... Human Beings Have Always Needed Hope, And Surely Now More Than Ever.

I Decided That Adventure Was The Best Way To Learn About Writing.

Dealing With The Impossible, Fantasy Can Show Us What May Be Really Possible. If There Is Grief, There Is The Possibility Of Consolation; If Hurt, The Possibility Of Healing; And Above All, The Curative Power Of Hope. If Fantasy Speaks To Us As We Are, It Also Speaks To Us As We Might Be

What You May Seek And What You May Find Are Not Always One.

If I Fret Over Tomorrow, I'll Have Little Joy Today.

How Easy It Is To Think Well Of Ourselves. Until The Moment Is Upon Us, We Can Never Be Certain.

Fantasy, In Addition To Being Great Storytelling, Moves Us At Some Unique And Profound Level. It Has, I Think, The Power Of Mythology, Or Ancient Dreams We Have Always And Forever Shared. In It, We Find Our Real World And Our Real Selves.

The Only Thing A Cat Worries About Is What's Happening Right Now. As We Tell The Kittens, You Can Only Wash One Paw At A Time.

In The Race Of Men Is Much Greed And Envy; But Of Truth, Little.

The Art Is More Important Than The Artist. The Work Is More Important Than The Person Who Does It. You Must Be Prepared To Sacrifice All The You Could Possibly Have, Be, Or Do; You Must Be Willing To Go All The Way For Your Art. If It Is A Question Between Choosing Between Your Life And A Work Of Art -- Any Work Of Art -- Your Decision Is Made For You.

Using The Device Of An Imaginary World Allows Me In Some Strange Way To Go To The Central Issues - It's One Of Many Ways To Express Feelings About Real People, About Real Human Relationships.

Count The Deed, Not The Thought.

Do You Not Believe That Animals Know Grief And Fear And Pain? The World Of Men Is Not An Easy One For Them.

I'm Convinced That Imagination Is At The Heart Of Everything We Do - In Art, Science, Even Astrophysics And Higher Mathematics. Imagination Leads Us To Ask, "what If?"

She Had No Particular Breed In Mind, No Unusual Requirements. Except The Special Sense Of Mutual Recognition That Tells Dog And Human They Have Both Come To The Right Place.

I Think Imagination Is At The Heart Of Everything We Do. Scientific Discoveries Couldn't Have Happened Without Imagination. Art, Music, And Literature Couldn't Exist Without Imagination. And So Anything That Strengthens Imagination, And Reading Certainly Does That, Can Help Us For The Rest Of Our Lives.

Keep Out Of This," Lucian Said. "i'm Not Smiting Anybody." "you're Showing Mercy." Catch-a-tick Nodded. "that's Heroic, Too. But Not As Good As Smiting.

Thinking Is A Bit Uncomfortable, But You'll Get Used To It. A Matter Of Time And Practice.

A Shade Of Sorrow Passed Over Taliesin's Face. 'there Are Those,' He Said Gently, 'who Must First Learn Loss, Despair, And Grief. Of All Paths To Wisdom, This Is The Cruelest And Longest. Are You One Who Must Follow Such A Way? This Even I Cannot Know. If You Are, Take Heart Nonetheless. Those Who Reach The End Do More Than Gain Wisdom. As Rough Wool Becomes Cloth, And Crude Clay A Vessel, So Do They Change And Fashion Wisdom For Others, And What They Give Back Is Greater Than What They Won.

Two Cats Can Live As Cheaply As One, And Their Owner Has Twice As Much Fun

I Can't Single Out One Of My Books Or Characters As A Favorite. In The Same Way That I Don't Have A Favorite Kidney, My Books Are Organically All Part Of Myself. I Might Even Say That Put All Together, The Books Are One Ongoing, Developing Story - Which, Not Coincidentally, Happens To Be My Own Lifestory.

What Seems To Be Love Beyond Any Question Is Usually A Simple Case Of Indigestion.

Eventually, I Was Sent To Wales And Germany, And After The War, To Paris.

He Was A Great Poet" They Lamented. No, He Was Not A Great Poet," Said Theo, "he Was A Good Poet, He Could Have Been Better. That's The Real Loss Don't You See?

A Taste For Adventure Is By No Means A Masculine Monopoly.

After Seven Years Of Writing - And Working Many Jobs To Support My Family - I Finally Got Published.

I Came To Fantasy Fairly Late. For Some Ten Years, I Had Been Happily Writing Fiction And Non-fiction For Adults. But I Always Loved Fantasy, Whether For Adults Or Young People; And At That Particular Point In My Life, I Wanted To Try It, To Understand It, As Part Of The Process Of Learning To Be A Writer. The Results Were Beyond Anything I Could Have Foreseen. As I've Said Often And Elsewhere, It Was The Most Creative And Liberating Experience Of My Life.

Favorite Books And Authors While Growing Up - I'd Need A Book To List Them All. For The Sake Of Brevity: Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, Victor Hugo, World's Mythology, The Arthurian Legends. And The Unabridged Dictionary. And They're Still My Favorites. They Get Better Each Time I Read Them.

For The Deeds Of A Man, Not The Words Of A Prophecy, Are What Shape His Destiny.

We Don't Need To Have Just One Favorite. We Keep Adding Favorites. Our Favorite Book Is Always The Book That Speaks Most Directly To Us At A Particular Stage In Our Lives. And Our Lives Change. We Have Other Favorites That Give Us What We Most Need At That Particular Time. But We Never Lose The Old Favorites. They're Always With Us. We Just Sort Of Accumulate Them.

Every Man Is A Hero If He Strives More For Others Than For Himself Alone.

Keep Reading. It's One Of The Most Marvelous Adventures That Anyone Can Have.

King Constantine Ix Of Regia Had Been Killed Three Times And Was Bored With It. He Wanted A Bath.

If You Want Truth You Should Begin By Giving It.

True Allegiance Is Only Given Willingly.

When I Was Discharged, I Attended The University Of Paris And Met A Beautiful Parisian Girl, Janine. We Soon Married And Eventually Returned To The States.

Books Can Truly Change Our Lives: The Lives Of Those Who Read Them, The Lives Of Those Who Write Them. Readers And Writers Alike Discover Things They Never Knew About The World And About Themselves.

The Prydain Companion Is More Than A Quick Reference Or Handy Glossary, Though It Is All Of That As Well. Instructive, Certainly. But, Like Any Good Companion, A Pleasure To Be With Over A Long Period Of Time.

Just Because You've Seen Something Doesn't Mean You'll Stop Looking. There's Always Something You Didn't See Before.

...righteousness [is] Always More Believable When Combined With Dreariness.

Most Of My Books Have Been Written In The Form Of Fantasy.

Fantasy Is Hardly An Escape From Reality. It's A Way Of Understanding It.

Evil Conquered?' Said Gwydion. 'you Have Learned Much, But Learn This Last And Hardest Of Lessons. You Have Conquered Only The Enchantments Of Evil. That Was The Easiest Of Your Tasks, Only A Beginning, Not An Ending. Do You Believe Evil Itself To Be So Quickly Overcome? Not So Long As Men Still Hate And Slay Each Other, When Greed And Anger Goad Them. Against These Even A Flaming Sword Cannot Prevail, But Only That Portion Of Good In All Men's Hearts Whose Flame Can Never Be Quenched.

I Know That Some Readers Think (the High King) Should Have Ended Differently. I Cried For Three Days Afterwards.

You Must Know Nothing Before You Can Learn Something, And Be Empty Before You Can Be Filled. Is Not The Emptiness Of The Bowl What Makes It Useful? As For Laws, A Parrot Can Repeat Them Word For Word. Their Spirit Is Something Else Again. As For Governing, One Must First Be Lowest Before Being Highest.

Once You Have Courage To Look Upon Evil, Seeing It For What It Is And Naming It By Its True Name, It Is Powerless Against You, And You Can Destroy It.

Trust Your Luck, Taran Wanderer. But Don't Forget To Put Out Your Nets!

Stale Water Is A Poor Drink. Stale Skill Is Worse. And The Man Who Walks In His Own Footsteps Only Ends Where He Began.

We Hold Each Other's Lives In Our Open Hands, Not In Clenched Fists.

No Matter What Has Happened, You're Not A Pig-boy; You're An Assistant Pig Keeper!

You Have A Point," Said Fronto, "and Even A Poet Must Occasionally Bow To Logic.

There Is More Honor In A Field Well Plowed Than In A Field Steeped In Blood.

What! I Don't Care About Being A Princess! And Since I'm Already A Young Lady, How Else Could I Behave? That's Like Asking A Fish Not To Swim!" ~princess Eilonwy, Daughter Of Angharad, Daughter Of Regat, Of The Royal House Of Llyr

Life's A Forge - Yes, And Hammer And Anvil, Too. You'll Be Roasted, Smelted, And Pounded, And You'll Scarce Know What's Happening To You. But Stand Proudly To It. Metal's Worthless Till It Is Shaped And Tempered. More Labor Than Luck. Face The Pounding, Don't Fear The Proving; And You'll Stand Well Against Any Hammer And Anvil.

If I Do Find Pride, I'll Not Find It In What I Was Or What I Am, But What I May Become. Not In My Birth, But In Myself.

My Family Pleaded With Me To Forget Literature And Do Something Sensible, Such As Find Some Sort Of Useful Work.

There's This Huge Number Of Desperate People.

That Is Why Your Sacrifice Was All The More Difficult. You Chose To Be A Hero Not Through Enchantment But Through Your Own Manhood.

He [the Cat] Liked To Peep Into The Refrigerator And Risk Having His Head Shut In By The Closing Door. He Also Climbed To The Top Of The Stove, Discontinuing The Practice After He Singed His Tail.

Most Cats Do Not Approach Humans Recklessly. The Possibility Of Concealed Weapons, Clods Or Sticks, Tend To Make Them Reserved. Homeless Cats In Particular-with Some Justification, Unfortunately-consider Humans Their Natural Enemies. Much Ceremony Must Be Observed, And A Number Of Diplomatic Feelers Put Out, Before Establishing A State Of Truce.

Indeed, The More We Find To Love, The More We Add To The Measure Of Our Hearts.

If The Pull Of The Outside World Is Strong, There Is Also A Pull Towards The Human. The Cat May Disappear On Its Own Errands, But Sooner Or Later, It Returns Once Again For A Little While, To Greet Us With Its Own Type Of Love.

Neither Refuse To Give Help When It Is Needed,... Nor Refuse To Accept It When It Is Offered.

I Have Never Known Courage To Be Judged By The Length Of A Man's Hair. Or, For The Matter Of That, Whether He Has Any Hair At All.

Any Fool Can Tell A Story. Take A Few Odds And Ends Of Things That Happen To You, Dress Them Up, Shuffle Them About, Add A Dash Of Excitement, A Little Color, And There You Have It.

...alas, Raising A Young Lady Is A Mystery Even Beyond An Enchanter's Skill.

All Agreed That Quickset Was The Cleverest Cat In The World. And, Since Quickset Had The Same Opinion, It Was Surely True.

My Concern Is How We Learn To Be Genuine Human Beings.

Ever Since Human Beings Learned To Talk To Each Other, We've Been Fascinated With Storytelling Of Every Kind. Blessed (or Cursed) With Insatiable Curiosity, We Have To Know What Happens Next.

After I Saved Some Money, I Quit Work And Went To A Local College.

And Thus Did An Assistant Pig-keeper Become High King Of Prydain.

Forgive Me....i Called You An Idiot. I Spoke Too Hastily. You Are Not. Had I Given It More Thought, I Would Have Called You A Scoundrel.

Morgant?" Taran Asked, Turning A Puzzled Glance To Gwydion. "how Can There Be Honor For Such A Man?" "it Is Easy To Judge Evil Unmixed," Replied Gwydion. "but, Alas, In Most Of Us Good And Bad Are Closely Woven As The Threads On A Loom; Greater Wisdom Than Mine Is Needed For The Judging.

Who But Lovers Dream Alike?

By All Means," Cried The Bard, His Eyes Lighting Up. "a Fflam To The Rescue! Storm The Castle! Carry It By Assault! Batter Down The Gates!" "there's Not Much Of It Left To Storm," Said Eilonwy. "oh?" Said Fflewddur, With Disappointment. "very Well, We Shall Do The Best We Can.

A Man Who Claims To Be Fearless Is An Idiot Or A Liar.

Seize The Day, Whatever's In It To Seize, Before Something Comes Along And Seizes You.

Paradoxically, In Fantasy For Young People I Was Able To Express My Own Deepest Feelings And Attitudes More Than I Had Ever Done In Writing For Adults.

Craftsmanship Isn't Like Water In An Earthen Pot, To Be Taken Out By The Dipperful Until It's Empty. No, The More Drawn Out The More Remains.

For Wayfarers Still Journeying, For Wanderers At Rest.

I Can't Stand People Who Say 'i Told You So.' That's Worse Than Somebody Coming Up And Eating Your Dinner Before You Have A Chance To Sit Down.

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