P. L. Travers Quotes

1899–1996 Australia

Pamela Lyndon Travers (August 9 1899 – April 23 1996) was a British author, born Helen Lyndon Goff in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, best known as the creator of the "Mary Poppins" series of stories.

Australia
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Also known as: P L Travers, PL Travers, Pamela Travers, Travers, P. L.

Random P. L. Travers quote

45 quotes

It is only through the ordinary that the extraordinary can make itself perceived.

The Paris Review interview (1982)

Such a thing, Jane and Michael knew, had never been done before. …They gazed curiously at the strange new visitor.

The Fifth of November is Guy Fawkes' Day in England.

Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943)

I think if she comes from anywhere that has a name, it is out of myth.

The Paris Review interview (1982)

Could it be ... that the hero is one who is willing to set out, take the first step, shoulder something? Perhaps the hero is one who puts his foot upon a path not knowing what he may expect from life but in some way feeling in his bones that life expects something of him.

The World of the Hero (1976)

We'll never forget you, Mary Poppins!

Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943)

You can’t say, “I did this; this gross matrix of flesh and blood and sinews and nerves did this.” What nonsense! I’m given these things to make a pattern out of. Something gave it to me.

The Irish, as a race, have the oral tradition in their blood. A direct question to them is an anathema, but in other cases, a mere syllable of a hero's name will elicit whole chapters of stories.

No Word for Time: The Way of the Algonquin People (2001)

When I write it’s more a process of listening.

The Paris Review interview (1982)

It may be that to eat and be eaten are the same thing in the end. My wisdom tells me that this is probably so. We are all made of the same stuff, remember, we of the Jungle, you of the City. The same substance composes us — the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star — we are all one, all moving to the same end. Remember that when you no longer remember me, my child.

Mary Poppins (1934)

I never wrote my books especially for children.

The Paris Review interview (1982)

"You know, you don’t really need me. All you need to do is read your own books."

The Paris Review interview (1982)

I got a letter back saying: “Why didn’t you tell me? Mary Poppins with her cool green core of sex has me enthralled forever.”

The Paris Review interview (1982)

I am grateful that children have included my books in their treasure trove.

The Paris Review interview (1982)

No culture can satisfactorily move along its forward course without its myths, which are its teachings, its fundamental dealing with the truth of things, and the one reality that underlies everything.

The Paris Review interview (1982)

"Bird and beast and stone and star — we are all one, all one —" murmured the Hamadryad, softly folding his hood about him as he himself swayed between the children.
"Child and serpent, star and stone — all one."

Mary Poppins (1934)

Mary Poppins is both a joy and a curse to me as a writer ... As a writer, you can feel awfully imprisoned, because people, having had so much of one thing, want you always to go on doing more of the same.

He said there is, in fact, only one Creator and we mix. That’s our function, to mix the elements He has given us.

The Paris Review interview (1982)

For me there are no answers, only questions, and I am grateful that the questions go on and on. I don't look for an answer, because I don't think there is one. I'm very glad to be the bearer of a question.

Nevertheless, it is Guy Fawkes who is remembered today and King James who is forgotten. For since that time, the Fifth of November in England, like the Fourth of July in America, has been devoted to Fireworks.

Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: P. L. Travers (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.