he was for long my only audience... Only from him did I ever get the idea that my โstuffโ could be more than a private hobby. But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more I should never have brought The L. of the R. to a conclusion.
J. R. R. TolkienAnd it is not our part here to take thought only for a season, or for a few lives of Men, or for a passing age of the world.
J. R. R. TolkienYes, I am white now,' said Gandalf. 'Indeed I am Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should have been.
J. R. R. TolkienOne has personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.
J. R. R. Tolkien