Imagination doesnโt just mean making things up. It means thinking things through, solving them, or hoping to do so, and being just distant enough to be able to laugh at things that are normally painful. Head teachers would call this escapism, but they would be entirely wrong. I would call fantasy the most serious, and the most useful, branch of writing there is. And this is why I donโt, and never would, write Real Books.
Diana Wynne JonesNothing is safe from you. If I were to court a girl who lived on an iceberg in the middle of the ocean, sooner or laterโ probably soonerโ Iโd look up to see you swooping overhead on a broomstick. In fact, by now Iโd be disappointed in you if I didnโt see you.โ โAre you off to the iceberg today?โ Sophie retorted.
Diana Wynne JonesWhat makes you a real girl or boy is that no one laughs at you. If you are imitation or unreal, the rules give you a right to exist provided you do what the real ones or brutes say. What makes you into me or Charles Morgan is that the rules allow all the girls to be better than me and all the boys better than Charles Morgan.
Diana Wynne Jones