Lloyd Alexander

It is harsh enough for each man to bear his own wound. But he who leads bears the wounds of all who follow him.

I decided that adventure was the best way to learn...

Most of my books have been written in the form of fantasy.

After I saved some money, I quit work and went to a local college.

I decided that adventure was the best way to learn about writing.

Seize the day, whatever's in it to seize, before something comes along and seizes you.

My concern is how we learn to be genuine human beings.

A crown is a pitiless master harsher than the staff of a pig keeper while a staff bears up a crown weighs down beyond the strength of any man to wear it lightly.

It was 1943. The U.S. had already entered World War II, so I decided to join the army.

A crown is more discomfort than adornment. If you have learned that you have already learned much.

If writers learn more from their books than do readers, perhaps I may have begun to learn.

Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, and so many others were my dearest friends and greatest teachers.

When I was discharged, I attended the University of Paris and met a beautiful Parisian girl, Janine. We soon married and eventually returned to the States.

Eventually, I was sent to Wales and Germany, and after the war, to Paris.

I loved all the world's mythologies.

My family pleaded with me to forget literature and do something sensible, such as find some sort of useful work.

After seven years of writing - and working many jobs to support my family - I finally got published.

All that writers can do is keep trying to say what is deepest in their hearts.

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.

Using the device of an imaginary world allows me in some strange way to go to the central issues - it's one of many ways to express feelings about real people, about real human relationships.

King Arthur was one of my heroes - I played with a trash can lid for a knightly shield and my uncle's cane for the sword Excalibur.

The only thing a cat worries about is what's happening right now. As we tell the kittens, you can only wash one paw at a time.

Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. Its a way of understanding it.

My parents were horrified when I told them I wanted to be an author.

There's this huge number of desperate people.