Charles de Lint Quotes

But what the evil people do, that's their responsibility. The burden they have to carry. Sure, when we see 'em starting on causing some hurt, we've got to try and stop 'em, but mostly what the rest of us should be concerning ourselves with is doing right by others. Every time you do a good turn, you shine the light a little further into the dark. And the thing is, even when we're gone, that light's going to keep shining on, pushing the shadows back.

We're so quick to cut away pieces of ourselves to suit a particular relationship, a job, a circle of friends, incessantly editing who we are until we fit in.

As far as I'm concerned, the only difference between fact and what most people call fiction is about fifteen pages in the dictionary.

Without mysteries, life would be very dull indeed. What would be left to strive for if everything were known?

Witchery is merely a word for what we are all capable of.

When all's said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it's not so much which road you take, as how you take it.

Look inside yourself for the answers - you're the only one who knows what's best for you. Everybody else is only guessing.

The fey wonders of the world only exist while there are those with the sight to see them.

I don't think the world is the way we like to think it is. I don't think it's one solid world, but many, thousands upon thousands of them—as many as there are people—because each person perceives the world in his or her own way; each lives in his or her own world. Sometimes they connect, for a moment, or more rarely, for a lifetime, but mostly we are alone, each living in our own world, suffering our small deaths.

The best artists know what to leave out.

It's easy to believe in magic when you're young. Anything you couldn't explain was magic then. It didn't matter if it was science or a fairy tale. Electricity and elves were both infinitely mysterious and equally possible - elves probably more so.

Everything has a spirit and it's all connected. If you think about that, if you live your life by it, then you're less likely to cause any hurt. It's like how our bodies go back into the ground when we die, so that connects us to the earth. If you dump trash, you're dumping it on your and my ancestors. Or to bring it down to its simplest level: treat everything and everybody the way you want to be treated, because when you hurt someone, you're only hurting yourself.

Beauty isn't what you see on TV or in magazine ads or even necessarily in art galleries. It's a lot deeper and a lot simpler than that. It's realizing the goodness of things, it's leaving the world a little better than it was before you got here. It's appreciating the inspiration of the world around you and trying to inspire others.

Stone walls confine a tinker; cold iron binds a witch; but a musician's music can never be fettered, for it lives first in her heart and mind.

Wondering’s healthy. Broadens the mind. Opens you up to all sorts of stray thoughts and possibilities.

Why did men worship in churches, locking themselves away in the dark, when the world lay beyond its doors in all its real glory?

Life is like art. You have to work hard to keep it simple and still have meaning.

It was all cheese and applause.

The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it.