Pl Travers Quotes

Don't you know that everybody's got a Fairyland of their own?

Once we have accepted the story, we cannot escape the story's fate.

I hate being good. -Mary Poppins

The same substance composes us--the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star--we are all one, all moving to the same end.

That's what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.

There was something strange and extraordinary about her – something that was frightening and at the same time most exciting.

Who are you?" she inquired, as the cat passed by. I'm the cat that looked at a king," he replied. And I," she remarked with a toss of her head, "am the cow that jumped over the moon." Is that so?" said the cat. "Whatever for?" The cow stared. She had never been asked that question before. And suddenly it occured to her that there might something else to do than jumping over moons.

Perhaps we are born knowing the tales of our grandmothers and all their ancestral kin continually run in our blood repeating them endlessly, and the shock they give us when we first bear them is not of surprise but of recognition.

I shouldn't wonder if you didn't wonder much too much!

What is real and what is not? Can you tell me or I you? Perhaps we shall never know more than this—that to think a thing is to make it true.

Mary Poppins never told anybody anything. . . .

Mary Poppins was very vain and liked to look her best. Indeed, she was quite sure that she never looked anything else.

We're on the brink of an Adventure. Don't spoil it by asking questions!

We are all made of the same stuff, remember, we of the Jungle, you of the City. The same substance composes us—the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star—we are all one, all moving to the same end. Remember that when you no longer remember me, my child.

Don’t you know that everybody’s got a Fairyland of their own?

Mary Poppins,” he cried, “you’ll never leave us, will you?

Michael knew now what was happening to him. He knew he was going to be naughty.

I’ll stay till the wind changes,” she said

Michael, "I never expected the wish to come true." The Trout, "Great Oceans! Why bother to wish it, then? I call that simply a waste of time.

He could smell her crackling white apron and the faint flavour of toast that always hung about her so deliciously.

She paused, as though she were remembering events that happened hundreds of years before that time.

You can't expect two stars to drop in the same field in one lifetime

There they were, all together, up in the air

And when, at last, .... I stood in London with ten pounds in my hand - five of which I promptly lost - the ancestors dwelling in my blood who, all my life, had summoned me with insistent eldritch voices, murmured together, like contented cats.

And all the time he was enjoying his badness, hugging it to him as though it were a friend, and not caring a bit.

Good-bye,” said Michael to the Bird Woman. “Feed the Birds,” she replied, smiling. “Good-bye,” said Jane. “Tuppence a Bag!” said the Bird Woman and waved her hand.

Some people,” remarked Mary Poppins, putting her down, “think a great deal too much. Of that I am sure.

Mary Poppins is not a fairy-tale." "She's even better!" said Alfred loyally. "She's a fairy-tale come true.

she wore so many brooches and necklaces and earrings that she jingled and jangled just like a brass band.

If I were some people,” she remarked acidly, “I’d mind my own business!

He knew, the moment he opened his eyes, that something was wrong but he was not quite sure what it was.

She sounds like you, Mary Poppins,' said Michael. 'So terribly pleased with herself!

That's coral!" she cried in astonishment. "We must be down in the deeps of the sea!" Well, wasn't that what you wanted?" said the trout. "I thought you wished you could see the sea!" I did," said Jane, looking very surprised. "But I never expected the wish to come true." Great oceans! Why bother to wish it then? I call that simply a waste of time. But come on! Mustn't be late for the party!

And what's more, he'll go and live with his friend unless his friend is allowed to come in and live with him...His friend must have a silk cushion just like his and sleep in your room too. Otherwise he will go and sleep in the coal-cellar with his friend

But at the very moment she was thinking these thoughts, adventure, as she afterwards told my Mother, was stalking her.

Don’t you know,” she said pityingly, “that everybody’s got a Fairyland of their own?

So it was settled, and that was how the Banks family came to live at Number Seventeen, with Mrs. Brill to cook for them,

You must be very old!” said Jane,

Well, au revoir, one and all.

This is your new nurse, Mary Poppins.

She’s something special, you see. Not in the matter of looks, of course. One of my own day-old chicks is handsomer than Mary P. ever was——

All right, indeed! That was hardly the word. All right, in her blue jacket with the silver buttons! All right with her gold locket round her neck! All right with the parrot-headed umbrella under her arm!

Robertson Ay was sitting in the garden busily doing nothing.

You said you were the King of the Castle – and you’re not, not by any means! But that’s the Dirty Rascal.

All good things come to an end, sometime,” said Mary Poppins primly.

A very excellent and worthy person, thoroughly reliable in every particular.

A very old-fashioned idea, to my mind,” Jane and Michael heard the stern voice say. “Very old-fashioned. Quite out of date, as you might say.

The Dolphins were after it in a second, two dark striving shapes rippling through the water. Jane and Michael could hardly breathe. Which would win the prize? Or would the prize escape?

Mary Poppins sighed with pleasure, however, when she saw three of herself, each wearing a blue coat with silver buttons and a blue hat to match. She thought it was such a lovely sight that she wished there had been a dozen of her or even thirty. The more Mary Poppins the better.

Nothing I had written before Mary Poppins had anything to do with children and I have always assumed, when I thought about it at all, that she had come out of the same well of nothingness (and by nothingness, I mean no-thing-ness)

Oh, go away! You're in my eyes," said John in a loud voice. "Sorry!" said the sunlight. "I must move from East to West in a day. Sorry! Shut your eyes and you won't see me.

The Red Cow was very respectable, she always behaved like a perfect lady and she knew What was What.

Gently, please, gently!” she warned, as they crowded about her. “This is a baby, not a battle-ship!

Nothing lasts for ever.

My wisdom tells me that this is probably so. We are all made of the same stuff, remember, we of the Jungle, you of the City. The same substance composes us—the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star—we are all one, all moving to the same end. Remember that when you no longer remember me, my child.” “But

Do you think that everything in the world is inside something else? My little Park inside the big one and the big one inside a larger one? Again and again? Away and away?” She waved her arm to take in the sky. “And to someone very far out there—do you think we would look like ants?” “Ants

Miss Lark had two gates. One was for Miss Lark’s friends and relations, and the other for the Butcher and the Baker and the Milkman. Once the Baker made a mistake and came in through the gate reserved for the friends and relations, and Miss Lark was so angry that she said she wouldn’t have any more bread ever.

The eternal opposites meet and kiss. The wolf and the lamb lie down together, the dove and the serpent share one nest. The stars bend down and touch the earth and the young and the old forgive each other. Night and day meet here, so do the poles. The East leans over towards the West and the circle is complete.

She’s saying it! She’s saying it!” cried Jane, holding tight to herself for fear she would break in two with delight. And she was saying it. The Bird Woman was there and she was saying it. “Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag! Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag! Feed the Birds, Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag, Tuppence a Bag!

Carpet,” said Mary Poppins, putting her key in the lock.

You should trust the children; they can stand more than we can.

Sir Christopher Wren’s Cathedral

But nobody ever knew what Mary Poppins felt about it, for Mary Poppins never told anybody anything.

I’m the Waiter, you know!

There! Come down! What are you doing up there? Come down! We can't have the girl walking through the air. It's not natural!" But Maia was going up and up.

One and one makes two,' she declared. 'And two halves make a whole. And Faithful Friends should be together, never kept apart.

Down below, just outside the front door, stood Mary Poppins, dressed in her coat and hat, with her carpet bag in one hand and her umbrella in the other.

Bird and beast and stone and star—we are all one, all one——” murmured the Hamadryad, softly folding his hood about him as he himself swayed between the children.

The wind’s in the West,

And here it is worth while remembering, since we are discussing Not Writing for Children, that neither the Sleeping Beauty nor Rumpelstiltzkin was really written for children. In fact, none of the fundamental fairy stories was ever written at all. They all arose spontaneously from the folk and were transmitted orally from generation to generation to unlettered listeners of all ages.

Mary Poppins walked down the garden path and opened the gate. Once outside in the Lane, she set off walking very quickly as if she were afraid the afternoon would run away from her if she didn’t keep up with it. At the corner she turned to the right and then to the left, nodded haughtily to the Policeman, who said it was a nice day, and by that time she felt that her Day Out had begun.

Do you thing, Mary Poppins ... Do you think that everything in the world is inside something else? My little Park inside the big one and the big one inside a larger one? Again and again? Away and away?

We Butchers, you know, like a bit of company. And we don’t often get the chance of talking to a nice, handsome young lady like you——” He broke off suddenly, for he had caught sight of Mary Poppins’s face.

This is the way the wheel turns, coming at last to full circle, with wild as well as tame at he crib; lion and turtle-dove together an barnyard beasts lying down with the fox. For wild and tame are but two hlaves and here, where all begins and ends, everything must be whole. And always, among the sleepers, there must be somebody waking - somewhere, someone, waking and watchful. Or what would happen to the world..?

Why,” said Jane, “there’s nothing in it!” “What do you mean—nothing?” demanded Mary Poppins, drawing herself up and looking as though she had been insulted. “Nothing in it, did you say?” And with that she took out from the empty bag a starched white apron and tied it round her waist. Next she unpacked a large cake of Sunlight Soap, a toothbrush, a packet of hairpins, a bottle of scent, a small folding armchair and a box of throat lozenges.

Pooh, he’s a ninkypoop!” “How do you know?” asked Jane, very interested. “I know because I heard Daddy call him one this morning!” said Michael, and he laughed at Andrew very rudely. “He is not a nincompoop,” said Mary Poppins. “And that is that.

You don’t look too blooming,” he said to Mary Poppins. “But then, nobody does——” Mary Poppins tossed her head. “Speak for yourself,” she said crossly, and flounced to the door, pushing the perambulator so fiercely that it bumped into a bag of oysters.

I’m not asleep,” Jane reassured her. “I’m thinking about the story.” “I heard every word,” said Michael, yawning. The Park Keeper rocked, as if in a trance. “A Nex-plorer in disguise,” he murmured, “sittin’ in the midnight sun and climbin’ the North Pole!” “Ouch!

she did a very odd thing. She broke off two of her fingers and gave one each to John and Barbara. And the oddest part of it was that in the space left by the broken-off fingers two new ones grew at once. Jane and Michael clearly saw it happen. “Only Barley-sugar – can’t possibly hurt ’em,

...it is the smallest house in the Lane. And besides that, it is the only one that is rather dilapidated and needs a coat of paint. But Mr. Banks, who owns it, said to Mrs. Banks that she could have either a nice, clean, comfortable house or four children. But not both, for he couldn't afford it. And after Mrs. Banks had given the matter some consideration she came to the conclusion that she would rather have Jane...and Michael...and John and Barbara, who were Twins and came last. So it was settled...

it may be that to eat and be eaten are the same thing in the end. My wisdom tells me that this is probably so. We are all made of the same stuff, remember, we of the Jungle, you of the City. The same substance composes us—the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star—we are all one, all moving to the same end. Remember

Care killed a cat,” snapped Mary Poppins. “I wasn’t caring, I was only wondering,” corrected Michael.

very quiet and still, as though it were thinking its own thoughts, or dreaming perhaps.

I assure you I haven’t been so surprised since Christopher Columbus discovered America—truly I haven’t!

interrupted

Mrs. Banks wished that Mary Poppins wouldn’t know so very much more about the best people than she knew herself.

Nothing is certain in this world.

Michael, you shall have some syrup of figs.

extraordinary

Strawberry ice,” he said ecstatically. “More, more, more!

me since I couldn’t come down to you – eh?” And then

The same substance composes us — the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star — we are all one, all moving to the same end.

Mary Poppins

This was the only place in the Park that was never mown or weeded. Clover, daisies, buttercups, bluebells, grew as high as the children's waists. Nettles and dandelions flaunted their blossoms, for they knew very well that the Park Keeper would never have time to root them out. None of them observed the rules. They scattered their seeds across the lawns, hustled each other for the best places, and crowded together so closely that their stems were always in shadowy darkness.

were spilt on his bib, Jane and Michael could tell that the substance in the spoon this time was milk. Then Barbara had her share, and she gurgled and licked the spoon twice. Mary Poppins then poured out another dose and solemnly took it herself. “Rum punch,” she said, smacking her lips and corking the bottle. Jane’s eyes and Michael’s popped with astonishment, but they were not given much time to wonder, for Mary Poppins, having put the miraculous bottle on the mantelpiece, turned to them. “Now,” she said, “spit-spot into bed.” And she began to undress them. They noticed that whereas buttons and hooks had needed all sorts of coaxing from Katie Nanna, for Mary Poppins they flew apart almost at a look. In less than a minute they found themselves in bed and watching, by the dim light from the night-light, the rest of Mary Poppins’s unpacking being performed. From the carpet bag she took out seven flannel nightgowns, four cotton ones, a pair of boots, a

On one occasion, an ancient great-aunt of mine, hieratically assuming a head-dress of feather and globules of jet, required me to accompany her to the beehives. ‘But you surely don't need a hat, Aunt Jane! They're only at the end of the garden.’ ‘It is the custom,’ she said, grandly. ‘Put a scarf over your head.’ Arrived, she stood in silence for a moment. Then — ‘I have to tell you,’ she said, formally, ‘that King George V is dead. You may be sorry, but I am not. He was not an interesting man. Besides,’ she added — as though the bees needed the telling! — ‘everyone has to die’.

The lambs in their arms were as smooth as mushrooms, the flock at their heels unruffled. And amid all that froth of fleece, white and metrical as soap-suds, there was no sign of a black lamb. What more could one ask, at a children’s Christmas Eve service? Yet I found that I did indeed want more, especially for the children’s sake—faces trodden by crows’-feet, signs of the ferment, one might almost say chaos, that this unprecedented event brought once and ever brings; something of life, even in carven faces, someone out of breath with running, someone stricken with joy. And I dearly wanted a black lamb. For, without him, where are the ninety and nine? Flocks, like families, have need of their black sheep—he carries their sorrow for them. He is the other side of their whiteness. Does nobody understand, I wondered, that a crib without a black lamb is an incomplete statement?

unpacked a large cake of Sunlight Soap, a toothbrush, a packet of hairpins, a bottle of scent, a small folding armchair and a box of throat lozenges. Jane and Michael stared. “But I saw,” whispered Michael. “It was empty.” “Hush!” said Jane, as Mary Poppins took out a large bottle labelled “One Tea-Spoon to be Taken at Bed-Time.” A spoon was attached to the neck of the bottle, and into this Mary Poppins poured a dark crimson fluid. “Is that your medicine?” enquired Michael, looking very interested. “No, yours,” said Mary Poppins, holding out the spoon to him. Michael stared. He wrinkled up his nose. He began to protest. “I don’t want it. I don’t need it. I won’t!” But Mary Poppins’s eyes were fixed upon him, and Michael suddenly discovered that you could not look at Mary Poppins and disobey her. There was something strange and extraordinary about her—something that was frightening and at the same time most exciting. The

Well, what is she, then? And where did she come from?” cried the Fledgling shrilly, flapping his short wings and staring down at the cradle. “You tell him, Annabel!” the Starling croaked. Annabel moved her hands inside her blanket. “I am earth and air and fire and water,” she said softly. “I come from the Dark where all things have their beginning.” “Ah, such dark!” said the Starling softly, bending his head to his breast. “It was dark in the egg, too,” the Fledgling cheeped. “I come from the sea and its tides,” Annabel went on. “I come from the sky and it’s stars, I come from the sun and it’s brightness—“ “Ah, so bright!” said the starling, nodding. “And I come from the forests of earth.” As if in a dream, Mary Poppins rocked the cradle—to-and-fro, to-and-fro with a steady swinging movement. “Yes?” whispered the Fledgling. “Slowly I moved at first,” said Annabel, “always sleeping and dreaming. I remembered all I had been and I thought of all I shall be. And when I had dreamed my dream I awoke and came swiftly.” She paused for a moment, her blue eyes full of memories. “And then?” Prompted the Fledgling. “I heard the stars singing as I came and I felt warm wings about me. I passed the beasts of the jungle and came through the dark, deep waters. It was a long journey.

That all you got, Bert?” said Mary Poppins, and she said it so brightly you could hardly tell she was disappointed at all. “That’s the lot,” he said. “Business is bad today. You’d think anybody’d be glad to pay to see that, wouldn’t you?” And he nodded his head at Queen Elizabeth. “Well—that’s how it is, Mary,” he sighed. “Can’t take you to tea today, I’m afraid.” Mary Poppins thought of the raspberry-jam-cakes they always had on her Day Out, and she was just going to sigh, when she saw the Match-Man’s face. So, very cleverly, she turned the sigh into a smile—a good one with both ends turned up—and said: “That’s all right, Bert. Don’t you mind. I’d much rather not go to tea. A stodgy meal, I call it—really.” And that, when you think how very much she liked raspberry-jam-cakes, was rather nice of Mary Poppins. The Match-Man apparently thought so, too, for he took her white-gloved hand in his and squeezed it hard. Then together they walked down the row of pictures. “Now, there’s one you’ve never seen before!” said the Match-Man proudly, pointing to a painting of a mountain covered with snow and its slopes simply littered with grasshoppers sitting on gigantic roses. This time Mary Poppins could indulge in a sigh without hurting his feelings. “Oh, Bert,” she said, “that’s a fair treat!” And by the way she said it she made him feel that by rights the picture should have been in the Royal Academy, which is a large room where people hang the pictures they have painted. Everybody comes to see them, and when they have looked at them for a very long time, everybody says to everybody else: “The idea—my dear!” The next picture Mary Poppins and the Match-Man came to was even better. It was the country—all trees and grass and a little bit of blue sea in the distance, and something that looked like Margate in the background. “My word!” said Mary Poppins admiringly, stooping so that she could see it better. “Why, Bert, whatever is the matter?” For the Match-Man had caught hold of her other hand now, and was looking very excited.