Tove Jansson

“It's funny about paths and rivers... You see them go by, and suddenly you feel you want to be a part of them. To travel with them.”

“You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much.”

“But that’s how it is when you start wanting to have things. Now I just look at them, and when I go away I carry them in my head. Then my hands are free.”

“I only want to live in peace, plant potatoes and dream.”

“All things are so very uncertain, and that's exactly what makes me feel reassured.”

“Isn't it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different...”

“The world is full of great and wonderful things for those who are ready for them.”

“One can't be too dangerous, if they like to eat pancakes. Especially with jam.”

“It is simply this: do not tire, never lose interest, never grow indifferent—lose your invaluable curiosity and you let yourself die. It's as simple as that.”

“A theatre is the most important sort of house in the world, because that's where people are shown what they could be if they wanted, and what they'd like to be if they dared to and what they really are.”

“One has to travel abroad to find out how beautiful home is.”

“There are those who stay and those who go. And it is a given that the goers will be happier. But I'm a stay-at-home.”

“Maybe my passion is nothing special, but at least it's mine.”