Norton Juster Quotes

... what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.

~ Norton Juster

if something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn't there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That's why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones.

~ Norton Juster

Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.

~ Norton Juster

The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.

~ Norton Juster

You see, it's really quite simple. A simile is just a mode of comparison employing 'as' and 'like' to reveal the hidden character or essence of whatever we want to describe, and through the use of fancy, association, contrast, extension, or imagination, to enlarge our understanding or perception of human experience and observation.

~ Norton Juster

You had the courage to try and what you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do.

~ Norton Juster

Words and numbers are of equal value, for in the cloak of knowledge one is warp and the other woof.

~ Norton Juster

…it’s not just learning that’s important. It’s learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things that matters.

~ Norton Juster

Time is a gift, given to you, given to give you the time you need, the time you need to have the time of your life.

~ Norton Juster

And Milo, full of thoughts and questions, curled up on the pages of tomorrow's music and eagerly awaited the dawn.

~ Norton Juster

Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?

~ Norton Juster

...it's just as bad to live in a place where what you do see isn't there as it is to live in one where what you don't see is.

~ Norton Juster

Now, remember: they're not for eating, but for listening, because you'll often be hungry for sounds as well as food. Here are street noises at night, train whistles from a long way off, dry leaves burning, busy department stores, crunching toast, creaking bed springs, and of course, all kinds of laughter. There's a little of each, and in far off, lonely places, I think you will be glad to have them.

~ Norton Juster

Of course, if you've ever gotten a surprise package, you can imagine how puzzled and excited Milo was; and if you've never gotten one, pay close attention, because someday you might.

~ Norton Juster

We never choose which words to use, for as long as they mean what they mean to mean, we don’t care if they make sense or nonsense.

~ Norton Juster

And that's why people no longer care which words they use as long as they use lots of them.

~ Norton Juster

...it's very much like your trying to reach infinity. You know that it's there, you just don't know where-but just because you can never reach it doesn't mean that it's not worth looking for.

~ Norton Juster

You weren't thinking and you weren't paying attention either. People who don't pay attention often get stuck in the Doldrums.

~ Norton Juster

He paused again as a tear of longing rolled from cheek to lip with the sweet-salty taste of an old memory.

~ Norton Juster

Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.

~ Norton Juster

...mirages are things that aren't really there that you can see very clearly.How do you see something that isn't there?...sometimes it's much simpler than seeing things that are...

~ Norton Juster

A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect. Be gone, odious wasp! You smell of decayed syllables.

~ Norton Juster

You must never feel badly about making mistakes ... as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.

~ Norton Juster

I wouldn't eat too many of those [half-baked ideas] if I were you. They may look good, but you can get terribly sick of them.-Tock

~ Norton Juster

I know one thing for certain; it's much harder to tell whether you ARE lost than whether you WERE lost, for, on many occasions where you're going is exactly where you are. On the other hand, you often find that where you've been is not at all where you should have gone, and, since it's much more difficult to find your way back from someplace you've never left, I suggest you go there immediately and then decide.

~ Norton Juster

Rhyme and reason answer all problems

~ Norton Juster

Expect everything so that nothing comes unexpected.

~ Norton Juster

So each one of you agrees to disagree with whatever the other one agrees with, but if you both disagree with the same thing, aren't you really in agreement?

~ Norton Juster

I cannot take your sense of humor--and, with it, you've nothing to fear from me.

~ Norton Juster

For always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many. - Which Macabre

~ Norton Juster

And some looked even more like each other than they did like themselves.

~ Norton Juster

You must excuse my gruff conduct,” the watchdog said, after they’d been driving for some time, “but you see it’s traditional for watchdogs to be ferocious.

~ Norton Juster

AHA! interrupted Officer Shrift, making another note in his little book. Just as I thought: boys are the cause of everything.

~ Norton Juster

I write best in the morning, and I can only write for about half a day, that's about it.

~ Norton Juster