Roald Dahl

“A few weeks later, in the wood,I came across Miss Riding Hood.But what a change! No cloak of red,No silly hood upon her head.She said, 'Hello, and do please noteMy lovely furry wolfskin coat.”

“Hiçbir yerden tek ses bile duyulmuyordu. Şeftalinin üzerinde yolculuk yapmak hiç de bir uçak yolculuğuna benzemiyordu. Uçak gökyüzünde patırtılar, gürültüler çıkararak hareket eder ve o kocaman bulut dağlarına gizlenmiş duran bir şeyler varsa, uçak gelirken koşup saklanırlar. İşte bu yüzden, uçakla yolculuk edenler hiçbir şey göremezler.”

“It is most unlikely. But--here comes the big "but"--not impossible.”

“It's impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren't feeling twinkly yourself”

“We may see a Creature with forty-nine headsWho lives in the desolate snow,And whenever he catches a cold (which he dreads)He has forty-nine noses to blow.'We may see the venomous Pink-Spotted ScrunchWho can chew up a man with one bite.It likes to eat five of them roasted for lunchAnd eighteen for its supper at night.'We may see a Dragon, and nobody knowsThat we won't see a Unicorn there.We may see a terrible Monster with toesGrowing out of the tufts of his hair.'We may see the sweet little Biddy-Bright HenSo playful, so kind and well-bred;And such beautiful eggs! You just boil them and thenThey explode and they blow off your head.'A Gnu and a Gnocerous surely you'll seeAnd that gnormous and gnorrible GnatWhose sting when it stings you goes in at the kneeAnd comes out through the top of your hat.'We may even get lost and be frozen by frost.We may die in an earthquake or tremor.Or nastier still, we may even be tossedOn the horns of a furious Dilemma.'But who cares! Let us go from this horrible hill!Let us roll! Let us bowl! Let us plunge!Let's go rolling and bowling and spinning untilWe're away from old Spiker and Sponge!”

“«Mientras, seguían abriendo túnel, guiados por las zapas expertas de don Tejón. De repente, éste se detuvo y volviéndose hacia el zorro..."Amigo zorro", le confesó, "estoy algo preocupado por lo que estamos haciendo"."¿Y qué estamos haciendo, si puede saberse?", le preguntó don Zorro."Pues qué va a ser... ¡robar!", exclamó el tejón.Don Zorro dejó de cavar y se volvió estupefacto hacia su amigo:"Mi buen tejón...", comenzó el zorro. "¿Te das cuenta de lo que estás diciendo? Si tus hijos se están muriendo de hambre... ¿es que no piensas ayudarles?"Don Tejón asintió cabizbajo. "A ti lo que te pasa", continuó el zorro, "es que eres demasiado bueno"."¿Y qué hay de malo en eso?", le preguntó el tejón."¡Nada... sólo que nuestros enemigos son demasiado malos! ¿Te das cuenta de que Benito, Buñuelo y Bufón nos quieren matar?""Claro que me doy cuenta...", dijo el tejón con tristeza."Nosotros, en cambio, no queremos matarles a ellos..."¡Dios nos libre!", exclamó el buen tejón."Sólo pretendemos", continuó el zorro, "distraerles un poco de comida para alimentarnos nosotros y nuestras familias... ¿Qué hay de malo en ello?""Supongo que nada", murmuró el tejón."¡Son ellos los que nos hacen la guerra", exclamó el zorro. "¡Nosotros somos animales pacíficos!"»”

“Everything and all of them were being rattled around like peas inside an enormous rattle that was being rattled by a mad giant who refused to stop.”

“A message To the children who have read this book. When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important. A stodgy parent is no fun at all! What a child wants -and DESERVES- is a parent who is SPARKY!" - Danny, the champion of the world.”

“Then suddenly, he was struck by a powerful but simple little truth, and it was this: that English grammar is governed by rules that are almost mathematical in their strictness!”

“A whangdoodle would eat ten Oompa-Loompas for breakfast and come galloping back for a second helping.”

“I was observing her closely as I talked, and after a while I began to get the impression that she was not, in fact, quite so merry and smiling a girl as I had been led to believe at first. She seemed to be coiled in herself, as though with a secret she was jealously guarding. The deep-blue eyes moved too quickly about the room, never settling or resting on one thing for more than a moment; and over all her face, though so faint that they might not even have been there, those small downward lines of sorrow.”

“Don't gobblefunk around with words.”

“Do you wonder then that this man’s behaviour used to puzzle me tremendously? He was an ordinary clergyman at that time as well as being Headmaster, and I would sit in the dim light of the school chapel and listen to him preaching about the Lamb of God and about Mercy and Forgiveness and all the rest of it and my young mind would become totally confused. I knew very well that only the night before this preacher had shown neither Forgiveness nor Mercy in flogging some small boy who had broken the rules.So what was it all about? I used to ask myself.Did they preach one thing and practise another, these men of God?And if someone had told me at the time that this flogging clergyman was one day to become the Archbishop of Canterbury, I would never have believed it.It was all this, I think, that made me begin to have doubts about religion and even about God. If this person, I kept telling myself, was one of God’s chosen salesmen on earth, then there must be something very wrong about the whole business.”

“I've always said to myself that if a little pocket calculator can do it why shouldn't I?”

“The most important thing we've learned, So far as children are concerned, Is never, NEVER, NEVER let Them near your television set -- Or better still, just don't install The idiotic thing at all. In almost every house we've been, We've watched them gaping at the screen. They loll and slop and lounge about, And stare until their eyes pop out. (Last week in someone's place we saw A dozen eyeballs on the floor.) They sit and stare and stare and sit Until they're hypnotised by it, Until they're absolutely drunk With all that shocking ghastly junk. Oh yes, we know it keeps them still, They don't climb out the window sill, They never fight or kick or punch, They leave you free to cook the lunch And wash the dishes in the sink -- But did you ever stop to think, To wonder just exactly what This does to your beloved tot? IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD! IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD! IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND! IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND! HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE! HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE! HE CANNOT THINK -- HE ONLY SEES! 'All right!' you'll cry. 'All right!' you'll say, 'But if we take the set away, What shall we do to entertain Our darling children? Please explain!' We'll answer this by asking you, 'What used the darling ones to do? 'How used they keep themselves contented Before this monster was invented?' Have you forgotten? Don't you know? We'll say it very loud and slow: THEY ... USED ... TO ... READ! They'd READ and READ, AND READ and READ, and then proceed To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks! One half their lives was reading books! The nursery shelves held books galore! Books cluttered up the nursery floor! And in the bedroom, by the bed, More books were waiting to be read! Such wondrous, fine, fantastic tales Of dragons, gypsies, queens, and whales And treasure isles, and distant shores Where smugglers rowed with muffled oars, And pirates wearing purple pants, And sailing ships and elephants, And cannibals crouching 'round the pot, Stirring away at something hot. (It smells so good, what can it be? Good gracious, it's Penelope.) The younger ones had Beatrix Potter With Mr. Tod, the dirty rotter, And Squirrel Nutkin, Pigling Bland, And Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and- Just How The Camel Got His Hump, And How the Monkey Lost His Rump, And Mr. Toad, and bless my soul, There's Mr. Rat and Mr. Mole- Oh, books, what books they used to know, Those children living long ago! So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install A lovely bookshelf on the wall. Then fill the shelves with lots of books, Ignoring all the dirty looks, The screams and yells, the bites and kicks, And children hitting you with sticks- Fear not, because we promise you That, in about a week or two Of having nothing else to do, They'll now begin to feel the need Of having something to read. And once they start -- oh boy, oh boy! You watch the slowly growing joy That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen They'll wonder what they'd ever seen In that ridiculous machine, That nauseating, foul, unclean, Repulsive television screen! And later, each and every kid Will love you more for what you did.”

“You chose books, I chose looks . Now see the difference?”

“There is something about very cold weather that gives one an enormous appetite. Most of us find ourselves beginning to crave rich steaming stews and hot apple pies and all kinds of delicious warming dishes; and because we are all a great deal luckier than we realize, we usually get what we want—or near enough.”

“He turned and reached behind him for the chocolate bar, then he turned back again and handed it to Charlie. Charlie grabbed it and quickly tore off the wrapper and took an enormous bite. Then he took another…and another…and oh, the joy of being able to cram large pieces of something sweet and solid into one's mouth! The sheer blissful joy of being able to fill one's mouth with rich solid food!'You look like you wanted that one, sonny,' the shopkeeper said pleasantly. Charlie nodded, his mouth bulging with chocolate.”

“A good plot is like a dream.”

“Don't worry,' he said. 'So long as the facts are there, I can write the story. But please,' he added, 'let me have plenty of detail. That's what counts in our business, tiny little details, like you had a broken shoelace on your left shoe, or a fly settled on the rim of your glasses at lunch, or the man you were talking to had a broken front tooth...”

“Then there was a hard brown lozenge called the Tonsil Tickler. The Tonsil Tickler tasted and smelled very strongly of chloroform. We had not the slightest doubt that these things were saturated in the dreaded anaesthetic which, as Thwaites had many times pointed out to us, could put you to sleep for hours at a stretch. "If my father has to saw off somebody's leg," he said, "he pours chloroform on to a pad and the person sniffs it and goes to sleep and my father saws his leg off without him even feeling it." "But why do they put it into sweets and sell them to us?" we asked him. You might think a question like this would have baffled Thwaites. But Thwaites was never baffled. "My father says Tonsil Ticklers were invented for dangerous prisoners in jail," he said. "They give them one with each meal and the chloroform makes them sleepy and stops them rioting." "Yes," we said, "but why sell them to children?" "It's a plot," Thwaites said. "A grown-up plot to keep us quiet.”

“The secret of life', he said, 'is to become very very good at somethin' that's very very 'ard to do.”

“That however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance was there.”

“The matter with human beans," the BFG went on, "is that they is absolutely refusing to believe in anything unless they is actually seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles.”

“A stodgy parent is no fun at all. What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is SPARKY”

“Augustus Gloop! Augustus Gloop!The great big greedy nincompoop!”

“I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I'll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.Brian Sibley: Or brains even?Oh gosh, yes, brains is one of the least. You can be a lovely person without brains, absolutely lovely. Kindness - that simple word. To be kind - it covers everything, to my mind.If you're kind that's it.”

“lalalalalalallalalallalalalal have nothing to say”

“An idiotic vitch like youMust rrroast upon the barbecue!”

“Well, first of all," said the BFG, "human beans is not really believing in giants, is they? Human beans is not thinking we exist.”

“С тех пор каждый день, как только мать уезжала из дома, Матильда приходила в библиотеку. Дорога занимала всего десять минут, и девочка целых два часа могла наслаждаться чтением, тихонько сидя в уголке и проглатывая одну книгу за другой.”

“Oh, my sainted aunt! Don't mention that disgusting stuff in front of me! Do you know what breakfast cereal is made of? It's made of all those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners!”

“the world is a scary place for such a small child”

“I think I have this thing where everybody has to think I'm the greatest.And if they aren't completely knocked out and dazzled and slightly intimidated by me, I don't feel good about myself.”

“Tortoise, Tortoise get bigger, bigger. Come on Tortoise grow up, puff up, shoot up! Spring up, Blow up swell up! Gorge! Guzzle! Stuff! Gulp! Put on fat, Tortoise, Put on fat! get on, Get on! Gobble food!!”

“Giants isn't eating each other either, the BFG said. Nor is giants killing each other. Giants is not very lovely, but they is not killing each other. Nor is crockadowndillies killing other crockadowndillies. Nor is pussy-cats killing pussy-cats.'They kill mice,' Sophie said.'Ah, but they is not killing their own kind,' the BFG said. 'Human beans is the only animals that is killing their own kind.''Don't poisonous snakes kill each other?' Sophie asked. She was searching desperately for another creature that behaved as badly as the human.'Even poisnowse snakes is never killing each other,' the BFG said. 'Nor is the most fearsome creatures like tigers and rhinostossterisses. None of them is ever killing their own kind. Has you ever thought about that?'Sophie kept silent.'I is not understanding human beans at all,' the BFG said.' You is a human bean and you is saying it is grizzling and horrigust for giants to be eating human beans. Right or left?''Right,' Sophie said.'But human beans is squishing each other all the time,' the BFG said. 'They is shootling guns and going up inaerioplanes to drop their bombs on each other's heads every week. Human beans is always killing other human beans.'He was right. Of course he was right and Sophie knew it. She was beginning to wonder whether humans were actually any better than giants. 'Even so,' she said, defending her own race, I' think it's rotten that those foul giants should go off every night to eat humans. Humans have never done them any harm.''That is what the little piggy-wig is saying every day,' the BFG answered. 'He is saying, "I has never done any harm to the human bean so why should he be eating me?'"'Oh dear,' Sophie said.'The human beans is making rules to suit themselves,' the BFG went on. 'But the rules they is making do not suit the little piggy-wiggies. Am I right or left?''Right,' Sophie said.'Giants is also making rules. Their rules is not suiting the human beans. Everybody is making his own rules to suit himself.”

“For whipping cream, of course. How can you whip cream without whips?”

“Me is the only one what won't be gobbled up because giants is never eating giants”

“¿Os dais cuenta cabal de la cadena de crímenes tramados por la nena? Crimen número uno: la acusada comete allanamiento de morada. Crimen número dos: el personaje se queda con tres platos de potaje. Crimen número tres: la muy cochina destroza una sillita isabelina. Crimen número cuatro: va la dama y se limpia los zapatos en la cama... Un juez no dudaría ni un instante: «¡Diez años de presidio a esa tunante!». Pero en la historia, tal como se cuenta, la miserable escapa tan contenta mientras los niños gritan, encantados: «¡Qué bien; Ricitos de oro se ha salvado!».”

“Niets is een grotere kwelling dan een herinnering die net buiten de grenzen van het geheugen zweeft”

“There are no strangers in here, just friends you haven't met...”

“The snozberries taste like snozberries!”

“Give us strength, oh Lord, to let our children starve.”

“We is in Dream Country,' the BFG said. 'This is where all dreams is beginning.”

“We must hurry!’ said Mr. Wonka. ‘We have so much time and so little to do! No! Wait! Strike that! Reverse it!”

“When you're old enough to write a book for children, by then you'll have become a grown up and have lost all your jokeyness. Unless you're an undeveloped adult and still have an enormous amount of childishness in you.”

“The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it. It happens to be a fact that nearly every writer of fiction in the world drinks more whisky than is good for him. He does it to give himself faith hope and courage. A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul and that I am sure is why he does it.”

“El Super Zorro.3 granjeros bastante malos y llamados Benito Buñuelo y Bufón tienen una granja cada uno.El Superzorro vivia con sus hijos y su mujer, como todos o casi todos los días el Superzorro va ha buscar comida y os preguntareis ¿De donde la saca? Bueno pues muy facil se la coge a Benito Buñuelo y Bufón de sus granjas.Entonces un día los tres granjeros decidieros matar al zorro, aprovechando de que esa noche el viento iva para otro lado pusieron su plan en marcha.Justamente esa noche el Superzorro salio a por comida para alimentar a su familia,de repente oyo unos pasos y se escondio, entonces cuando fue a salir uno de los tres malvados granjeros le disparo en la cola y pansaron que le habian matado pero no fue asi.En cuanto le dispararon en la cola fue corrien do a su casa...”

“I is reading it hundreds of times,' the BFG said. 'And I is still reading it and teaching new words to myself and how to write them. It is the most scrumdiddlyumptious story.'Sophie took the book out of his hand. 'Nicholas Nickleby,' she read aloud.'By Dahl's Chickens,' the BFG said.”

“Titchy little snapperwhippers like you should not be higgling around with an old sage and onions who is hundreds of years more than you.”