Tove Jansson
Tove Jansson
Tove Marika Jansson; 9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. For her contribution as a children's writer she received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1966...
NationalityFinnish
ProfessionChildren's Author
Date of Birth9 August 1914
CityHelsinki, Finland
CountryFinland
worry remember
He didn't remember, he didn't worry, he just was.
writing important needs
I need to write down my observations. Even the tiniest ones; they're the most important.
grandmother night light
Before we left, Grandmother talked a lot about the arctic night we would fly through. 'Isn't it a mystical word, "arctic"? Pure and quite hard. And meridians. Isn't that pretty? We're going to fly along them, faster than the light can follow us... Time won't be able to catch us.
beautiful book strange
But he thought all the strange words were beautiful, and he had never had a book of his own before.
voice tables said
And all you can do is just read," she said. She raised her voice an screamed, "You just read and read and read!" Then she threw herself down on the table and wept.
adventure writing childhood
I'm not sure I would have ever started to draw, let alone write, if my childhood hadn't been so happy. It was a mixture of comfort and adventure. An excellent mixture!
earth grow later sad squirrel squirrels time
When one's dead, one's dead... This squirrel will become earth all in his time. And still later on, there'll grow new trees from him, with new squirrels skipping about in them. Do you think that's so very sad?
forgets forgive forgiven leave men women
All men are chums who will never leave each other in the lurch. A chum doesn't forgive, he just forgets - women forgive everything but never forget. Being forgiven is very unpleasant.
Those damn Moomins. I don't want to hear about them any more. I could vomit on the Moomintrolls.
again barking biting burying dig empty life natural overlook people rant rave rolling rot secret stuff time tree
People idealise their animals, and at the same time they patronisingly overlook a dog's natural life - biting fleas, burying bones, rolling in garbage, barking up an empty tree all night... But what do they do themselves? Bury stuff that will rot in secret and then dig it up and bury it again and rant and rave under empty trees!
absolutely christmas exactly measured mummy nuts sweets time weighed
Mummy weighed sweets and nuts so that everyone would get exactly the same amount. During the year, everything is measured roughly, but at Christmas, it has to be absolutely fair. That's why it's such a strenuous time.
bags lots means
Sometimes it's better to look at things than own them... owning means anxiety and lots of bags to carry around.
dared people shown
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.
begin create felt pointless suddenly time urge war
It was the winter of war, in 1939. It felt completely pointless to try to create pictures... I suddenly felt an urge to write down something that was to begin with 'Once upon a time.'