British - Novelist | September 13, 1916 - November 23, 1990
A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom.
Roald Dahl
FreedomFoolPersonBecomeOnlyHis
All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed quite literally to wound other boys, and sometimes very severely.
LifeSchoolSometimesThroughSenior
The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him.
WorkNobodyDeskGoHimOwn
Had I not had children of my own, I would have never written books for children, nor would I have been capable of doing so.
ChildrenDoingMy OwnNeverCapable
To shipbrokers, coal was black gold.
GoldBlackCoal
I find that the only way to make my characters really interesting to children is to exaggerate all their good or bad qualities, and so if a person is nasty or bad or cruel, you make them very nasty, very bad, very cruel. If they are ugly, you make them extremely ugly. That, I think, is fun and makes an impact.
GoodChildrenFunUglyThinkImpact
I shot down some German planes and I got shot down myself, crashing in a burst of flames and crawling out, getting rescued by brave soldiers.
MyselfBraveDownSoldiersOutGot
Pain was something we were expected to endure. But I doubt very much if you would be entirely happy today if a doctor threw a towel in your face and jumped on you with a knife.
TodayPainHappyDoctorFaceYou
All Norwegian children learn to swim when they are very young because if you can't swim it is difficult to find a place to bathe.
ChildrenLearnYouFindPlaceYoung
I am only 8 years old, I told myself. No little boy of 8 has ever murdered anyone. It's not possible.
MyselfI AmBoyPossibleOldYears
My father was a Norwegian who came from a small town near Oslo. He broke his arm at the elbow when he was 14, and they amputated it.
FatherSmallSmall TownWhoBroke
Nobody gets a nervous breakdown or a heart attack from selling kerosene to gentle country folk from the back of a tanker in Somerset.
HeartBackSellingCountryNobody
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