...by and by a change came: I started to muse about the shape of my nose. I put my trivial surroundings aside and mused more and more about myself, and I found this to be a bewitching occupation. I stopped asking and longed instead to speak of my thoughts and feelings. Alas, there was no one besides myself who found me interesting.
Tove JanssonShe started thinking about all the euphemisms for death, all the anxious taboos that had always fascinated her. It was too bad you could never have an intelligent discussion on the subject. People were either too young or too old, or else they didn't have time.
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 JanssonI mean, anyone can let Danger out but the really clever thing is finding somewhere for it to go afterwards.
Tove JanssonNow everything was changed. She walked about with cautious, anxious steps, staring constantly at the ground, on the lookout for things that crept and crawled. Bushes were dangerous, and so were sea grass and rain water. There were little animals everywhere. They could turn up between the covers of a book, flattened and dead, for the fact is that creeping animals, tattered animals, and dead animals are with us all our lives, from beginning to end. Grandmother tried to discuss this with her, to no avail. Irrational terror is so hard to deal with.
Tove Jansson