Grandmother walked up over the bare granite and thought about birds in general. It seemed to her no other creature had the same dramatic capacity to underline and perfect events - the shifts in the seasons and the weather, the changes that run through people themselves.
Tove JanssonWhy are you in such a rush?" Sophia asked, and her grandmother answered that it was a good idea to do things before you forgot that they had to be done.
Tove JanssonThe lamp sizzled as it burned. It made everything seem close and safe, a little family circle they all knew and trusted. Outside this circle lay everything that was strange and frightening, and the darkness seemed to reach higher and higher and further and further away, right to the end of the world.
Tove JanssonAn island can be dreadful for someone from outside. Everything is complete, and everyone has his obstinate, sure and self-sufficient place. Within their shores, everything functions according to rituals that are as hard as rock from repetition, and at the same time they amble through their days as whimsically and casually as if the world ended at the horizon.
Tove JanssonThere are such a lot of things that have no place in summer and autumn and spring. Everything thatโs a little shy and a little rum. Some kinds of night animals and people that donโt fit in with others and that nobody really believes in. They keep out of the way all the year. And then when everythingโs quiet and white and the nights are long and most people are asleepโthen they appear.
Tove Jansson