A clown needn't be the same out of the ring as he has to be when he's in it. If you look at photographs of clowns when they're just being ordinary men, they've got quite sad faces.

I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.

I do so hate finishing books. I would like to go on with them for years.

Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were--Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter.

Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.

With opportunity the world is very interesting.

I have just made stories to please myself, because I never grew up.

What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood?

There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.

Oh, I wish I lived in a caravan!’ said Jimmy longingly. ‘How lovely it must be to live in a house that has wheels and can go away down the lanes and through the towns, and stand still in fields at night!

The point is not that I don't recognise bad people when I see them I grant you I may quite well be taken in by them the point is that I know a good person when I see one.

My work in books, films and talks lies almost wholly with children, and I have very little time to give to grown-ups.

Here Mr Potts come here you little idiot!

I get over a hundred letters a day from all over the world, from children and parents, and it's a wonder I ever have time to write books, let alone speak!

We must have Christian ethics for our children, good and strong, but we must make them attractive, too, and it can be done.

I have written, probably, more books for children than any other writer, from story-books to plays, and can claim to know more about interesting children than most.

I am not really much interested in talking to adults, although I suppose practically every mother in the kingdom knows my name and my books. It's their children I love.

It wasn't a bit of good fighting grown-ups. They could do exactly as they liked.

I'm good at exploring roofs. You never know when that kind of thing comes in useful.