“The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“A good vocabulary,’ he once wrote (April 1959), ‘is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of the vocabulary… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“I wrote The Lord of the Rings because I wished ‘to try my hand at a really long story that would hold… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“We're going on a bit too fast. You and I, Sam, are still stuck in the worst places of the story, and… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“But this book does not offer a single page of original and unpublished work. What then is the need, now, for such… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“We're going on a bit too fast. You and I, Sam, are still stuck in the worst places of the story, and… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“That the printer had quietly reset The Fellowship of the Ring, and that copies had been issued without proof having been read… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“This book is thus primarily addressed to such readers as may perhaps recall that the hide of Shelob was so horrendously hard… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains, and then find somewhere where I can rest. In peace and quiet, without a… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“As a guide I had only my own feelings for what is appealing or moving, and for many the guide was inevitably… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“Literature shrivels in a universal language, and an uprooted language rots before it dies. And it should be possible to lift the… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, of course; but I mean: put into words,… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“That Tolkien also included in Roverandom words such as paraphernalia, and phosphorescent, primordial, and rigmarole, is refreshing in these later days when… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“When my father was a young man, during the years of the First World War and long before there was any inkling… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“Literature works from mind to mind and is more progenitive. It is at once more universal and more poignantly particular. If it… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We're in one, of course, but I mean: put… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“I will vouch for him before the seat of Denethor,' said Gandalf. 'And as for valour, that cannot be computed by stature. He has passed through more battles and perils than you have, Ingold, though you be twice his height; and he comes now from the storming of Isengard, of which we bear tidings, and great weariness is on him,… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share
“I have chosen Mr Baggins and that ought to be enough for all of you. If I say he is a Burglar, a Burglar… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“he can see through a brick wall in time (as they say in Bree). But” — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending; or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous "turn" (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially "escapist," nor "fugitive." In its fairy-tale -- or otherworld -- setting, it is… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share
“Sméagol won't grub for roots and carrotses and - taters. What's taters, precious, eh, what's taters?' 'Po-ta-toes,' said Sam. 'The Gaffer's delight, and rare good ballast for an empty belly. But you won't find any, so you needn't look. But be good Sméagol and fetch me some herbs, and I'll think better of you. What's more, if you turn over… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share
“But the Queen Arwen said: 'A gift I will give you. For I am the daughter of Elrond. I shall not go with him… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“If you lived near the edge of Mirkwood, you would take the word of no one that you did not know as well as… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“He was dark-haired as his mother, and promised to be like her in mood also; for he was not merry, and spoke little, though he learned to speak early and ever seemed older than his years. Túrin was slow to forget injustice or mockery; but the fire of his father was also in him, and he could be sudden and… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share
“Sam: Mordor. The one place in Middle-earth we don't want to see any closer, and the one place we're trying to get to. It's… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“May your beer be laid under an enchantment of surpassing excellence for seven years!” — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
“Though sword shall be rusted, And throne and crown perish With strength that men trusted And wealth that they cherish, Here grass is still… — J.R.R. Tolkien Copy Share Image
