“I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.”

“Tuesday, November 17th. 1896...I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense.”

“Thank God I have the seeing eye, that is to say, as I lie in bed I can walk step by step on the fells and rough land seeing every stone and flower and patch of bog and cotton pass where my old legs will never take me again.”

“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”

“The place is changed now, and many familiar faces are gone, but the greatest change is myself. I was a child then, I had no idea what the world would be like. I wished to trust myself on the waters and the sea. Everything was romantic in my imagination. The woods were peopled by the mysterious good folk. The Lords and Ladies of the last century walked with me along the overgrown paths, and picked the old fashioned flowers among the box and rose hedges of the garden.”

“There's something delicious about writing those first few words of a story. You can never quite tell where they will take you. Mine took me here, where I belong.”

“Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.”