“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.”

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living; it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.”

“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.”

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.”

“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”

“It's strange because sometimes I read a book and think I am the people in the book.”

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. 'Tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

“Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines.”

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”

“Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.”

“One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.”

“Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

“Do you remember me telling you we are practicing non-verbal spells, Potter?”

“I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.”

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”

“Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business. Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git. Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor. Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball.”

“Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.”

“There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.”

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'”

“Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.”

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

“It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.”

“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”

“All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring.”

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.”

“Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me: Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”

“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”

“If there's a book you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”

“I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?”

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”